🕷️ Crawler Inspector

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Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 149 (from laksa087)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa149.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brexit","crawl_time":1775051940,"first_indexed_time":1552731895,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"org,wikiquote!en,\/wiki\/Brexit s443","src_root_hash":"15648071994150960749","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"Brexit - Wikiquote","meta_descriptions":[],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"The British people have voted to leave the European Union ~\nDavid Cameron\nWhat happens at 11pm this Friday the 31st of January 2020 marks the point of no return. Once we’ve left, we’re never coming back and the rest frankly is detail. ~\nNigel Farage\nBrexit\n(a portmanteau of \"British\" and \"exit\") is the withdrawal of the\nUnited Kingdom\nfrom the\nEuropean Union\n. Following a\nreferendum\nheld on 23 June 2016 in which 51.9 percent of those voting supported leaving the EU, the Government\ninvoked Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union\nwhich started a two-year leaving process which was due to conclude with the UK's exit on the 29 March 2019 and then, after an extension, on 31 October 2019. The UK  left the EU on 31 January 2020.\nQuotes about Brexit\n[\nedit\n]\nWe\n[UKIP]\nseek an amicable divorce from the\nEuropean Union\nand its replacement with a genuine\nfree-trade\nagreement, which is what my parents' generation thought we’d signed up for in the first place.\nSaid by\nNigel Farage\n.\nUKIP news, issue 56\n, July 2004.\nWe no longer enjoy the same\nliberties\nAmericans do. We don't have a\nconstitution\n. We don't have a\nFirst Amendment\n. What we have, and what the whole of\nEurope\nhas, is the\nLisbon Treaty\n, a kind of top-down\nconstitution\nthat has been imposed on us against our will. And, unlike the\nAmerican Constitution\nwhich empowers the people, the European constitution dis-empowers the people, and empowers the un-elected\nbureaucrats\nand career\npoliticians\nfor whose sole benefit it was created.\nPat Condell\n,\n\"Europe needs a revolution\"\n(25 August 2011), from\nYouTube\nOnce again, I challenge the Prime Minister to have an open debate with me on why he believes we must stay part of this failing, corrupt EU. The future of our nation is at stake.\nMr Cameron\n, you have my phone number.\nNigel Farage\n\"The time will never be right for David Cameron to hold a referendum on the EU\"\n,\nThe Telegraph\n(5 July 2012)\n[Brexit] is stupidity for a country with 53 percent of its exports going to\nthe Continent\nand to the rest of Europe. It’s even so stupid that Britain’s best friends, the\nU.S.\n, don’t understand it all.\nSaid by\nGuy Verhofstadt\n. Quoted by Politico.\nGuy Verhofstadt’s 7 best Brexit burns\n(Quoted in August 2016; Said in January 2013)\n[An in\/out referendum is] going to put Britain through years of uncertainty, and take a huge gamble with\nour economy\n.\nSaid by\nEd Miliband\n.\nDavid Cameron promises in\/out referendum on EU\nBBC News\n(23 January 2013)\nYears of uncertainty caused by a future EU referendum would hit\njobs\nand\ngrowth\nand this is not in the national interest\nSaid by\nNick Clegg\n.\nDavid Cameron promises in\/out referendum on EU\nBBC News\n(23 January 2013)\nI am ready to campaign with all my heart and soul to keep Britain inside a reformed European Union\nSaid by\nDavid Cameron\n. Quoted by the BBC.\nDonald Tusk: Deal on UK's EU renegotiation 'very tough'\n(12 November 2015)\nLet me be clear. Leaving Europe would threaten our economic and our\nnational security\n.\nSaid by\nDavid Cameron\nQuoted by the Independent.\nDavid Cameron's EU referendum date announcement: Full text of speech\n(20 February 2016)\n[Britain would be] freer, fairer and better off outside the EU\nSaid by\nMichael Gove\n. Quoted by the BBC.\nUK 'better off' out of EU - Michael Gove\n(20 February 2016)\nThe EU offers our small\nbusinesses\nand\ntourism\nsector huge opportunities, I can't understand why anyone would want to shut those opportunities down\nSaid by\nTim Farron\n.\n'Huge' business and tourism opportunities from EU - Farron\nBBC News\n(25 February 2016)\nMy judgment is that remaining a member of the European Union means we will be more secure from\ncrime\nand\nterrorism\n.\nSaid by\nTheresa May\n.\nEU migration: UK to face 'free-for-all', Michael Gove warns\n,\nBBC News\n, (25 April 2016)\nThe Leavers don't seem to have much clue about what is to happen afterwards. Curious, considering so many of them have spent their adult lives agitating for this moment. Their approach appears to be a version of\nNapoleon\n's battle strategy: 'On se dégage, et puis on voit.' What exactly is Out supposed to entail? How do they picture Britain's relationship with the EU, and with the rest of the world, after they’ve secured a vote for Exit on 23 June?\nFerdinand Mount\n\"Nigels against the World\"\n,\nLondon Review of Books\n38:10 (19 May 2016)\nThe\nLabour Party\nis about as united as it possibly can be in asking people to Remain\nSaid by\nTom Watson\n.\nEU referendum: Labour urges its voters not to back Brexit\nBBC News\n(10 June 2016)\nAs a\nhistorian\nI fear Brexit could be the beginning of the destruction of not only the EU but also Western political civilisation in its entirety\nSaid by\nDonald Tusk\n.\nDonald Tusk: Brexit could destroy Western political civilisation\nBBC News\n(13 June 2016)\nEvery family knows that a\ndivorce\nis traumatic for everyone. Everyone in the EU, but especially the Brits themselves, would lose out economically [if Britain left the EU].\nSaid by\nDonald Tusk\n.\nDonald Tusk: Brexit could destroy Western political civilisation\nBBC News\n(13 June 2016)\nThe British people have voted to leave the European Union and their will must be respected\nSaid by\nDavid Cameron\n.\nBrexit: David Cameron to quit after UK votes to leave EU\nBBC News\n(24 June 2016)\nBrexit means Brexit, and we're going to make a success of it.\nSaid by\nTheresa May\n.\nTheresa May Says UK Will Make Success Of Brexit When She Is PM\n,\nSky News - Youtube\n, 11 July 2016. (On 24 July 2019 Theresa May stood down as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom without Brexit having been achieved.)\nThe referendum is not binding.\nWritten by\nKen Clarke\nin a letter to constiuents after the\n2016 EU referendum\nand quoted in\nthe Guardian\n. Asthana, Anushka and Mason, Rowena (13 September 2016)\nKen Clarke tells constituents: 'EU referendum is not binding'\nin the Guardian. Retrieved 8 July 2019.\nYes, on November 8, you Joe Blow, Steve Blow, Bob Blow, Billy Blow, all the Blows get to go and blow up the whole goddamn system because it's your right.\nTrump's election\nis going to be the biggest \"fuck you\" ever recorded in human history and it will feel\ngood\n— for a day. Maybe a week. Possibly a month. And then, like the Brits, who wanted to send a message, so they voted to leave Europe, only to find out that if you vote to leave Europe, you actually have to leave Europe. And now they regret it. All the\nOhioans\n,\nPennsylvanians\n,\nMichiganders\n, and\nWisconsinites\nof Middle England, right, they all voted to leave and now they regret it. And over 4 million of them signed a petition to have a do-over, they want another election, but it's not going to happen. Because you used the ballot as an anger management tool. And now you're fucked. And the rest of Europe. They're like, \"Bye Felicia!\" So when the rightfully angry people of Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin find out after a few months in office that\nPresident Trump\nwasn't going to do a damn thing for them, it will be too late to do anything about it.\nMichael Moore\n, Michael Moore in TrumpLand\n(October 7, 2016)\nBeing a member of EU comes with rights and benefits. Third countries (non members as the UK will be after Brexit) can never have the same rights and benefits since they are not subject to the same obligations.  The single market and its four\nfreedoms\n(which includes freedom of movement) are indivisible. Cherry picking is not an option.\nSaid by\nMichel Barnier\n.\nBrexit: EU negotiator says 'time's short' for reaching deal\nBBC News\n(6 December 2016)\nI wish the result had gone the other way.  I campaigned passionately for that.  But as\ndemocrats\nour party has to accept that result and it follows that the\nprime minister\nshould not be blocked from starting the Article 50 negotiations.\nSaid by\nKeir Starmer\n.\nBrexit decision 'difficult' for Labour, Keir Starmer says\nBBC News\n(31 January 2017)\nAny [Brexit] deal is bound to be full of compromises which one group or another in\nParliament\nfinds difficult to stomach.\nSaid by\nWilliam Hague\n.\nDowning Street rejects Hague call for snap election\nBBC News\n(7 March 2017)\nOur laws will then be made in\nLondon\n,\nEdinburgh\n,\nCardiff\nand\nBelfast\nand interpreted not by\njudges\nin\nLuxembourg\nbut by judges across the United Kingdom\nSaid by\nDavid Davis\n.\nBrexit: UK sets out plans to replace all EU laws\nBBC News\n(30 March 2017)\nYour Prime Minister, your MP, Theresa May, called this election about Brexit. Have we heard from her what she plans to do about Brexit? No. This is mad. On Thursday, you are going to be faced with Prime Minister May, or\nPrime Minister Corbyn\n, against twenty-seven\nprime ministers\nfrom the European Union. It will be a shitshow.\nSaid by\nLord Buckethead\n.\nSpeaking a local hustings in Maidenhead\n(5 June 2017)\nThere are two kinds of European nations. There are small nations and there are countries that have not yet realized they are small nations.\nSaid by\nKristian Jensen\n(13 June 2017), as cited in\n\"Brits angry at Dane's 'small nation' jibe\"\n,\nPolitico\n(13 June 2017).\nSpeaking at the Road To Brexit conference in Copenhagen, Jensen was\nDenmark\n's Finance Minister at the time.\nDominic Schroeder\n, then British ambassador to Denmark, said he saw no sign of his country being a \"of a diminished or diminishing power\".\nNo deal is better than a bad deal\nSaid by\nTheresa May\n.\nBoris Johnson: EU can 'go whistle' over Brexit divorce bill\n,\nBBC News\n, 11 July 2017\nSince the Brexit negotiations begun there's a third emotion I've been feeling - embarrassment.  Embarrassment at our country's leaders. Embarrassment for\nGreat Britain\n.\nSaid by\nVince Cable\n.\nAnti-Brexit marchers rally in Parliament Square\nBBC News\n(9 September 2017)\nAs Europe struggled to recover from\nrecession\n, in 2015 the British prime minister\nDavid Cameron\ntossed\nBrussels\na grenade. He said he would hold a referendum on the UK’s continued EU membership the following year. The torch of\nBritish Euroscepticism\nhad passed from\nleft\nto\nright\n. It was now\nConservatives\nrather than\nLabour\nwho were most anti-European. Cameron’s attempts to appease his ‘leave’ voters by negotiating reforms to the EU were dismissed by the ever cautious\nMerkel\nand, in June 2016, to Cameron’s surprise and dismay, the British electorate voted narrowly to leave the EU. The vote was taken as binding by the\ngovernment\n. The date decided by Parliament for departure was March 2019.\nSimon Jenkins,\nA Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin\n(2018)\nBritain’s departure could not lightly be dismissed. Its economy was second only to\nGermany’s\nin size, and contributed twenty per cent of the EU budget. The UK might long have been half-hearted in its commitment to European union, but now it was not alone. A Pew survey in mid-2016 was one of many showing disapproval of the EU as high in\nGermany\nand the\nNetherlands\nas in Britain, and higher in\nFrance\nand\nSpain\n. Few governments dared imitate Britain and hold an open vote on continued membership. Union might be popular but the EU was not.\nSimon Jenkins,\nA Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin\n(2018)\nBrexit has been pushed by certain people who predicted easy solutions. Brexit has shown us one thing - and I fully respect British sovereignty in saying this - it has demonstrated that those who said you can easily do without Europe, that it will all go very well, that it is easy and there will be lots of money, are liars. This is all the more true because they left the next day, so they didn't have to manage it.\nSaid by\nEmmanuel Macron\n.\nDonald Tusk: Theresa May's Brexit trade plan won't work\nBBC News\n(20 September 2018)\nCrashing out of Europe with no deal risks being a national disaster.\nSaid by\nJeremy Corbyn\n.\nBrexit: Jeremy Corbyn meets Michel Barnier for 'useful' talks\n,\nBBC News\n, 27 September 2018\nBrexit was not our choice, it is the choice of the UK. Our proposal tries to help the UK in managing the negative fallout of Brexit in\nNorthern Ireland\nin a way that respects the territorial integrity of the UK.\nSaid by\nMichel Barnier\n.\nBrexit negotiators working 'day and night' for agreement\nBBC News\n(10 October 2018)\nFor me, getting a good Brexit is about securing the freedoms and opportunities to plough our own furrow whilst enjoying a relationship of co-operation and trade with mainland Europe.\nSaid by\nDerek Thomas\n. Quoted in the Falmouth Packet.\nBrexit conversation in Helston with MP Derek Thomas\n(10 November 2018)\nTherefore now in the national interest we have got to come together and secure a compromise. If we can't do that, well yes, we have to go back to the people.\nSaid by\nJohn McDonnell\n.\nBrexit: Labour plan can get majority, says John McDonnell\nBBC News\n(8 February 2019)\nBritain is basically\nPompeii\nif Pompeii had voted for\nthe volcano\n.\nSaid by\nJohn Oliver\nabout Brexit \"\nBrexit III\n\" (\nff.\n0:14:30), (17 February 2019).\nYou cannot drag out Brexit for a decade.\nSaid by\nHeiko Maas\n.\nBrexit: Tusk says UK MEPs could sit for 'months or longer'\nBBC News\n(16 April 2019)\nWe've got to a stage where we feel that any deal is so controversial and may well be so far from what people voted for when they voted to leave, that we think that it is probably appropriate… that we say to the people, 'Is this what you wanted?' We just want to check. Because if it isn't, then let's stay.\nSaid by\nEmily Thornberry\n.\n2019 European elections: Labour MPs push for referendum pledge\nBBC News\n(26 April 2019)\nI want us to leave the European Union, I think we should have left on the 29th of March but we've got these elections and I think it's really important that there's a good vote for ... people who do want to leave.\nSaid by\nJacob Rees-Mogg\n. Quoted by the BBC.\nEuropean elections 2019: Rees-Mogg backs Conservative candidate\n(9 May 2019)\nIt is my honestly held view that Parliament will not be able to get a deal on Brexit and therefore the only choice, reluctantly, is to ask the people to take another look at it.\nSaid by\nTom Watson\n.\nBrexit: 'High price to pay' for Labour stance, says Watson\nBBC News\n(17 June 2019)\nIf the UK doesn’t pay what is due, the EU will not negotiate a trade deal.\nSaid by\nGuy Verhofstadt\n. Quoted by the Independent\nBoris Johnson news – live: EU 'will block trade deal' if UK refuses to pay £39bn divorce bill, as No 10 warns MPs they can't stop no-deal\n(26 August 2019)\nI'm against any form of Brexit, I want to stop Brexit, but in particular a no-deal Brexit I think will be catastrophic for our economy, society, for a long time to come\nSaid by\nNicola Sturgeon\n.\nNicola Sturgeon: Stopping no-deal Brexit is priority\nBBC News\n(2 September 2019)\nThe more divergence there is, the more distant the partnership has to be.\nWithout an extension of the transition period beyond 2020, you cannot expect to agree on every single aspect of our new partnership. Without the freedom of movement of people, you cannot have the free movement of\ncapital\n,\ngoods\nand\nservices\n. Without a level playing field on\nenvironment\n,\nlabour\n,\ntaxation\nand state aid, you cannot have highest-quality access to the world’s largest single market.\nSaid by\nUrsula von der Leyen\n.\nBoris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen have 'positive' meeting\nThe Guardian\n(8 January 2019)\nThere is no need to give in on fish to complete a Free Trade Agreement. The UK must be firm - no more concessions. An FTA is in the EU's interest so dig in.\nFrom a series of tweets by\nJohn Redwood\n, a pro-Brexit MP.\n\"BBC under fire as reporter brands Brexit fishing expectations 'hopelessly naive'\"\n,\nExpress\n(10 January 2020)\nThank you, goodbye, and\ngood riddance\n.\nCroatian representative to the EU Irena Andrassy to UK counterpart\nTim Barrow\n(reportedly mistaking “good riddance” as being like “good luck”) —\nFinancial Times\n(29 January 2020)\nSo this is it, the final chapter, the end of the road. A 47-year political experiment that the British frankly have never been very happy with.\nMy mother and father signed up to a\ncommon market\n, not to a political union,\nflags\n,\nanthems\n,\npresidents\n, and now you even want your own\narmy\n.\nFor me, it has been 27 years of campaigning and over 20 years here in this parliament. I’m not particularly happy with the agreement we’re being asked to vote on tonight. But\nBoris\nhas been remarkably bold in the last few months… he’s promised us there will be no level playing field, and on that basis, I wish him every success in the next round of negotiations, I really do.\nNigel Farage\n, EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory,\nBreitbart news\nWhat happens at 11pm this Friday the 31st of January 2020 marks the point of no return. Once we’ve left, we’re never coming back and the rest frankly is detail.\nWe’re going, and we will be gone. And that should be the summit of my own political ambitions. I walked in here, you all thought it was terribly funny but you stopped laughing in 2016. But my view of Europe has changed since I joined. In 2005, I saw the constitution that had been drafted… and saw it rejected by the\nFrench\nin a referendum. I saw it rejected by the\nDutch\nin a referendum. And I saw you, in these institutions, ignore them. [You brought it back] as the\nLisbon treaty\n, and boast you could ram it through without there being referendums. Well, the\nIrish\ndid have a vote and did say no, and were forced to vote again. You’re very good at making people to vote again, but what we’ve proved is the British are too big to bully, thank goodness. So I became an outright opponent of the whole European project. I want Brexit to start a debate across the whole of Europe.\nWhat do we want from Europe? If we want trade, friendship cooperation, reciprocity, we don’t need a\nEuropean Commission\n, we don’t need a European court. We don’t need these institutions and all of this power.\nAnd I can promise you, both in UKIP and in the Brexit party, we love Europe. We just hate the European Union.\nNigel Farage\n, EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory,\nBreitbart news\nI hope this begins the end of this project. It is a bad project. It isn’t just undemocratic, it is antidemocratic.\nIt puts in that front row, it gives people power without unaccountability. People who cannot be held to account by the electorate and that is an unacceptable structure.\nNigel Farage\n, EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory,\nBreitbart news\nThere is a historic battle going on across the west, in Europe,\nAmerica\n, and elsewhere. It is\nglobalism\nagainst\npopulism\n. And you may loathe populism, but I’ll tell you a funny thing. It is becoming very popular!\nAnd it has great benefits. No more financial contributions, no more European Courts of Justice. No more European Common Fisheries Policy, no more being talked down to. No more being bullied, no more\nGuy Verhofstadt\n! What’s not to like. I know you’re going to miss us, I know you want to ban our national flags, but we’re going to wave you goodbye, and we’ll look forward in the future to working with you as a\nsovereign\nnation… [Farage is cut off by the chair]\nNigel Farage\n, EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory,\nBreitbart news\nIn Britain,\nhard-right revisionism\npacked itself into the single, self-destructive nuclear option of Brexit. From the 2000s, anti-Europeanism was pursued with skill and determination by the upstart UKIP party (founded 1993) and among Conservatives by the old, unreconciled, Britain-first rump, perhaps a third of the parliamentary party. Shaken by diplomatic failures with his European partners and spooked by the rise of British anti-Europeanism, David Cameron, who was prime minister from 2010 to 2016, called a referendum on British membership of the EU, which he expected to win. On narrowly losing, rather than play for time a shaken Cameron announced within hours that “the instruction” of “the people” should be “delivered.” He resigned, leaving to his successors,\nTheresa May\nand\nBoris Johnson\n, an anti-liberal, populist discourse of people against elites,\ndemocracy\nagainst\nparliament\n, which May nibbled at and Johnson swallowed whole.\nEdmund Fawcett,\nConservatism: The Fight for a Tradition\n(2020), p. 349\nThe rebellion against membership of the European Union, culminating in the British ‘Brexit’ referendum on 23 June 2016, represents a new highwater mark for anxious and distrustful popular sentiment. A little more than seventy years after the war against\nextreme nationalism\nappeared won, a small but clear majority of those who chose to vote essentially reaffirmed the near-absolute primacy of\nnationalism\nover\ninternationalism\n, reversing the political direction in which the United Kingdom and the rest of\nEurope\nhad appeared to be travelling since 1945. In the\nUnited States\n, a phrase with dubious historical pedigree, ‘\nAmerica First\n’, has become current once more. What we are living through is not, of course, precisely a repeat of the\n1930s\n. However, the study of the 1930s reminds us of the dangers of crass\ninequality\n, of international ‘beggar-my-neighbour’ competition, of the capacity of marginalized\nsocial groups\nfor extreme violence based on the scapegoating of minorities, and of the many other consequences that flow from irresponsible and often sadly misjudged notions of national self-interest.\nFrederick Taylor,\n1939: A People's History\n(2020)\nScotland\nwill be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on.\nScottish First Minister\nNicola Sturgeon\n, Scottish First Minister, via\nTwitter\n, according to\nBrexit: New era for UK as it completes separation from European Union\nposted December 31, 2020\nAlso, would a referendum settle this issue (Repeal of\nSection 377A\n) once and for all? May I remind Members and the PSP what happened in the UK with Brexit. Both sides campaigned vigorously and bitterly. It created and entrenched polarised identities. [...] In the process, the credibility of the British government was severely damaged.\nIndeed, it has yet to recover.\nMasagos Zulkifli\n, Singapore Parl Debates; Vol 95, Sitting No 77; 29 November 2022.\nWikipedia\nCommons","attrs_markdown":"[Jump to content](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brexit#bodyContent)\n\nMain menu\n\nMain menu\n\nmove to sidebar\n\nhide\n\nNavigation\n\n- [Main page](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Main_Page \"Visit the main page [alt-z]\")\n- [Community portal](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Wikiquote:Community_Portal \"About the project, what you can do, where to find things\")\n- [Village pump](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Wikiquote:Village_pump)\n- [Recent changes](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Special:RecentChanges \"A list of recent changes in the wiki [alt-r]\")\n- [Random page](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Special:Random \"Load a random page [alt-x]\")\n- [Help](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Help:Contents \"The place to find 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2015](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brexit#2015)\n    - [1\\.1.6 2016](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brexit#2016)\n  - [1\\.2 Post-referendum](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brexit#Post-referendum)\n    - [1\\.2.1 2016](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brexit#2016_2)\n    - [1\\.2.2 2017](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brexit#2017)\n    - [1\\.2.3 2018](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brexit#2018)\n    - [1\\.2.4 2019](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brexit#2019)\n    - [1\\.2.5 2020](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brexit#2020)\n    - [1\\.2.6 2022](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brexit#2022)\n- [2 External links](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brexit#External_links)\n# Brexit\n5 languages\n\n- [Čeština](https:\/\/cs.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brexit \"Brexit – Czech\")\n- [Suomi](https:\/\/fi.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brexit \"Brexit – Finnish\")\n- [Nederlands](https:\/\/nl.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brexit \"Brexit – Dutch\")\n- 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\"Edit this page [alt-e]\")\n- [View history](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=history)\n\nGeneral\n\n- [What links here](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Special:WhatLinksHere\/Brexit \"A list of all wiki pages that link here [alt-j]\")\n- [Related changes](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Special:RecentChangesLinked\/Brexit \"Recent changes in pages linked from this page [alt-k]\")\n- [Upload file](https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/Special:UploadWizard \"Upload files [alt-u]\")\n- [Permanent link](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&oldid=3782692 \"Permanent link to this revision of this page\")\n- [Page information](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=info \"More information about this page\")\n- [Cite this page](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Special:CiteThisPage&page=Brexit&id=3782692&wpFormIdentifier=titleform \"Information on how to cite this page\")\n- [Get shortened URL](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Special:UrlShortener&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikiquote.org%2Fwiki%2FBrexit)\n- [Edit interlanguage links](https:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/wiki\/Special:EntityPage\/Q7888194#sitelinks-wikiquote \"Edit interlanguage links\")\n\nPrint\/export\n\n- [Create a book](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Special:Book&bookcmd=book_creator&referer=Brexit)\n- [Download as PDF](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Special:DownloadAsPdf&page=Brexit&action=show-download-screen)\n- [Printable version](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&printable=yes \"Printable version of this page [alt-p]\")\n\nIn other projects\n\n- [Wikimedia Commons](https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/Category:Brexit)\n- [Wikipedia](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Brexit)\n- [Wikiversity](https:\/\/en.wikiversity.org\/wiki\/Brexit)\n- [Wiktionary](https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Appendix:Brexit_glossary)\n- [Wikidata item](https:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/wiki\/Special:EntityPage\/Q7888194 \"Link to connected data repository item [alt-g]\")\n\nFrom Wikiquote\n\n[![](https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/2\/21\/European_Union_United_Kingdom_Locator.svg\/250px-European_Union_United_Kingdom_Locator.svg.png)](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/File:European_Union_United_Kingdom_Locator.svg)\n\nThe British people have voted to leave the European Union ~ [David Cameron](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/David_Cameron \"David Cameron\")\n\n[![](https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/9\/97\/EU-Austritt_%2847521165961%29.svg\/250px-EU-Austritt_%2847521165961%29.svg.png)](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/File:EU-Austritt_\\(47521165961\\).svg)\n\nWhat happens at 11pm this Friday the 31st of January 2020 marks the point of no return. Once we’ve left, we’re never coming back and the rest frankly is detail. ~ [Nigel Farage](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nigel_Farage \"Nigel Farage\")\n\n**[Brexit](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Brexit \"w:Brexit\")** (a portmanteau of \"British\" and \"exit\") is the withdrawal of the [United Kingdom](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/United_Kingdom \"United Kingdom\") from the [European Union](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/European_Union \"European Union\"). Following a [referendum](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2016_EU_referendum \"w:2016 EU referendum\") held on 23 June 2016 in which 51.9 percent of those voting supported leaving the EU, the Government [invoked Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_Kingdom_invocation_of_Article_50_of_the_Treaty_on_European_Union \"w:United Kingdom invocation of Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union\") which started a two-year leaving process which was due to conclude with the UK's exit on the 29 March 2019 and then, after an extension, on 31 October 2019. The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020.\n\n## Quotes about Brexit\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=1 \"Edit section: Quotes about Brexit\")\\]\n\n### Pre-referendum\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=2 \"Edit section: Pre-referendum\")\\]\n\n#### 2004\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=3 \"Edit section: 2004\")\\]\n\n- We [\\[UKIP\\]](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/UKIP \"w:UKIP\") seek an amicable divorce from the [European Union](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/European_Union \"w:European Union\") and its replacement with a genuine [free-trade](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Free_trade \"Free trade\") agreement, which is what my parents' generation thought we’d signed up for in the first place.\n  - Said by [Nigel Farage](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nigel_Farage \"Nigel Farage\"). [UKIP news, issue 56](http:\/\/www.ukip.org\/media\/pdf\/ukipnewsissue56.pdf), July 2004.\n\n#### 2011\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=4 \"Edit section: 2011\")\\]\n\n- We no longer enjoy the same [liberties](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Liberty \"Liberty\") Americans do. We don't have a [constitution](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Constitutions \"Constitutions\"). We don't have a [First Amendment](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution \"First Amendment to the United States Constitution\"). What we have, and what the whole of [Europe](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Europe \"Europe\") has, is the [Lisbon Treaty](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Lisbon_Treaty \"Lisbon Treaty\"), a kind of top-down [constitution](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Constitutions \"Constitutions\") that has been imposed on us against our will. And, unlike the [American Constitution](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/United_States_Constitution \"United States Constitution\") which empowers the people, the European constitution dis-empowers the people, and empowers the un-elected [bureaucrats](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Bureaucracy \"Bureaucracy\") and career [politicians](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Politicians \"Politicians\") for whose sole benefit it was created.\n  - [Pat Condell](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Pat_Condell \"Pat Condell\"), [\"Europe needs a revolution\"](http:\/\/listenonrepeat.com\/watch?v=s3u9LB32YYM) (25 August 2011), from [YouTube](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/YouTube \"w:YouTube\")\n\n#### 2012\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=5 \"Edit section: 2012\")\\]\n\n- Once again, I challenge the Prime Minister to have an open debate with me on why he believes we must stay part of this failing, corrupt EU. The future of our nation is at stake. [Mr Cameron](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/David_Cameron \"David Cameron\"), you have my phone number.\n  - [Nigel Farage](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nigel_Farage \"Nigel Farage\") [\"The time will never be right for David Cameron to hold a referendum on the EU\"](http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/worldnews\/europe\/eu\/9378567\/The-time-will-never-be-right-for-David-Cameron-to-hold-a-referendum-on-the-EU.html), *The Telegraph* (5 July 2012)\n\n#### 2013\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=6 \"Edit section: 2013\")\\]\n\n- \\[Brexit\\] is stupidity for a country with 53 percent of its exports going to [the Continent](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Continental_Europe \"w:Continental Europe\") and to the rest of Europe. It’s even so stupid that Britain’s best friends, the [U.S.](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/United_States \"United States\"), don’t understand it all.\n  - Said by [Guy Verhofstadt](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Guy_Verhofstadt \"Guy Verhofstadt\"). Quoted by Politico. [Guy Verhofstadt’s 7 best Brexit burns](https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/european-parliament-negotiator-guy-verhofstadts-7-best-brexit-burns\/) (Quoted in August 2016; Said in January 2013)\n\n- \\[An in\/out referendum is\\] going to put Britain through years of uncertainty, and take a huge gamble with [our economy](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Economy_of_the_United_Kingdom \"Economy of the United Kingdom\").\n  - Said by [Ed Miliband](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Ed_Miliband \"Ed Miliband\"). [David Cameron promises in\/out referendum on EU](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-21148282) *BBC News* (23 January 2013)\n\n- Years of uncertainty caused by a future EU referendum would hit [jobs](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Jobs \"Jobs\") and [growth](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Economic_growth \"Economic growth\") and this is not in the national interest\n  - Said by [Nick Clegg](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nick_Clegg \"Nick Clegg\"). [David Cameron promises in\/out referendum on EU](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-21148282) *BBC News* (23 January 2013)\n\n#### 2015\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=7 \"Edit section: 2015\")\\]\n\n- I am ready to campaign with all my heart and soul to keep Britain inside a reformed European Union\n  - Said by [David Cameron](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/David_Cameron \"David Cameron\"). Quoted by the BBC. [Donald Tusk: Deal on UK's EU renegotiation 'very tough'](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-34803222) (12 November 2015)\n\n#### 2016\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=8 \"Edit section: 2016\")\\]\n\n- Let me be clear. Leaving Europe would threaten our economic and our [national security](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/National_security \"National security\").\n  - Said by [David Cameron](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/David_Cameron \"David Cameron\") Quoted by the Independent. [David Cameron's EU referendum date announcement: Full text of speech](https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/politics\/david-camerons-eu-referendum-date-announcement-full-text-of-speech-a6886191.html) (20 February 2016)\n\n- \\[Britain would be\\] freer, fairer and better off outside the EU\n  - Said by [Michael Gove](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Michael_Gove \"Michael Gove\"). Quoted by the BBC. [UK 'better off' out of EU - Michael Gove](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35617843) (20 February 2016)\n\n- The EU offers our small [businesses](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Business \"Business\") and [tourism](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Tourism \"Tourism\") sector huge opportunities, I can't understand why anyone would want to shut those opportunities down\n  - Said by [Tim Farron](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Tim_Farron \"Tim Farron\"). ['Huge' business and tourism opportunities from EU - Farron](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-wales-politics-35653200) *BBC News* (25 February 2016)\n\n- My judgment is that remaining a member of the European Union means we will be more secure from [crime](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Crime \"Crime\") and [terrorism](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Terrorism \"Terrorism\").\n  - Said by [Theresa May](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Theresa_May \"Theresa May\"). [EU migration: UK to face 'free-for-all', Michael Gove warns](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36126993), *BBC News*, (25 April 2016)\n\n- The Leavers don't seem to have much clue about what is to happen afterwards. Curious, considering so many of them have spent their adult lives agitating for this moment. Their approach appears to be a version of [Napoleon](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Napoleon \"Napoleon\")'s battle strategy: 'On se dégage, et puis on voit.' What exactly is Out supposed to entail? How do they picture Britain's relationship with the EU, and with the rest of the world, after they’ve secured a vote for Exit on 23 June?\n  - [Ferdinand Mount](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Ferdinand_Mount \"Ferdinand Mount\") [\"Nigels against the World\"](http:\/\/www.lrb.co.uk\/v38\/n10\/ferdinand-mount\/nigels-against-the-world), *London Review of Books* 38:10 (19 May 2016)\n\n- The [Labour Party](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Labour_Party \"w:Labour Party\") is about as united as it possibly can be in asking people to Remain\n  - Said by [Tom Watson](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Tom_Watson_\\(Labour_politician\\) \"Tom Watson (Labour politician)\"). [EU referendum: Labour urges its voters not to back Brexit](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36496288) *BBC News* (10 June 2016)\n\n- As a [historian](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Historian \"Historian\") I fear Brexit could be the beginning of the destruction of not only the EU but also Western political civilisation in its entirety\n  - Said by [Donald Tusk](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Donald_Tusk \"Donald Tusk\"). [Donald Tusk: Brexit could destroy Western political civilisation](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36515680) *BBC News* (13 June 2016)\n\n- Every family knows that a [divorce](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Divorce \"Divorce\") is traumatic for everyone. Everyone in the EU, but especially the Brits themselves, would lose out economically \\[if Britain left the EU\\].\n  - Said by [Donald Tusk](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Donald_Tusk \"Donald Tusk\"). [Donald Tusk: Brexit could destroy Western political civilisation](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36515680) *BBC News* (13 June 2016)\n\n### Post-referendum\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=9 \"Edit section: Post-referendum\")\\]\n\n#### 2016\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=10 \"Edit section: 2016\")\\]\n\n- The British people have voted to leave the European Union and their will must be respected\n  - Said by [David Cameron](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/David_Cameron \"David Cameron\"). [Brexit: David Cameron to quit after UK votes to leave EU](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-36615028) *BBC News* (24 June 2016)\n\n- Brexit means Brexit, and we're going to make a success of it.\n  - Said by [Theresa May](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Theresa_May \"Theresa May\"). [Theresa May Says UK Will Make Success Of Brexit When She Is PM](https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zV6n6zNVw_I), *Sky News - Youtube*, 11 July 2016. (On 24 July 2019 Theresa May stood down as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom without Brexit having been achieved.)\n\n- The referendum is not binding.\n  - Written by [Ken Clarke](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Ken_Clarke \"Ken Clarke\") in a letter to constiuents after the [2016 EU referendum](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2016_United_Kingdom_European_Union_membership_referendum \"w:2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum\") and quoted in [the Guardian](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Guardian \"w:The Guardian\"). Asthana, Anushka and Mason, Rowena (13 September 2016) [Ken Clarke tells constituents: 'EU referendum is not binding'](https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2016\/sep\/13\/ken-clarke-tory-constituent-brexit-eu-referendum-not-binding) in the Guardian. Retrieved 8 July 2019.\n- Yes, on November 8, you Joe Blow, Steve Blow, Bob Blow, Billy Blow, all the Blows get to go and blow up the whole goddamn system because it's your right. [Trump's election](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2016_United_States_presidential_election \"w:2016 United States presidential election\") is going to be the biggest \"fuck you\" ever recorded in human history and it will feel *good* — for a day. Maybe a week. Possibly a month. And then, like the Brits, who wanted to send a message, so they voted to leave Europe, only to find out that if you vote to leave Europe, you actually have to leave Europe. And now they regret it. All the [Ohioans](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Ohio \"Ohio\"), [Pennsylvanians](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Pennsylvania \"Pennsylvania\"), [Michiganders](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Michigan \"Michigan\"), and [Wisconsinites](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Wisconsin \"Wisconsin\") of Middle England, right, they all voted to leave and now they regret it. And over 4 million of them signed a petition to have a do-over, they want another election, but it's not going to happen. Because you used the ballot as an anger management tool. And now you're fucked. And the rest of Europe. They're like, \"Bye Felicia!\" So when the rightfully angry people of Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin find out after a few months in office that [President Trump](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Donald_Trump \"Donald Trump\") wasn't going to do a damn thing for them, it will be too late to do anything about it.\n  - [Michael Moore](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Michael_Moore \"Michael Moore\")*, Michael Moore in TrumpLand* (October 7, 2016)\n- Being a member of EU comes with rights and benefits. Third countries (non members as the UK will be after Brexit) can never have the same rights and benefits since they are not subject to the same obligations. The single market and its four [freedoms](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Freedom \"Freedom\") (which includes freedom of movement) are indivisible. Cherry picking is not an option.\n  - Said by [Michel Barnier](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Michel_Barnier \"Michel Barnier\"). [Brexit: EU negotiator says 'time's short' for reaching deal](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-38221140) *BBC News* (6 December 2016)\n\n#### 2017\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=11 \"Edit section: 2017\")\\]\n\n- I wish the result had gone the other way. I campaigned passionately for that. But as [democrats](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Democracy \"Democracy\") our party has to accept that result and it follows that the [prime minister](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom \"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom\") should not be blocked from starting the Article 50 negotiations.\n  - Said by [Keir Starmer](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Keir_Starmer \"Keir Starmer\"). [Brexit decision 'difficult' for Labour, Keir Starmer says](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-38799686) *BBC News* (31 January 2017)\n\n- Any \\[Brexit\\] deal is bound to be full of compromises which one group or another in [Parliament](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom \"Parliament of the United Kingdom\") finds difficult to stomach.\n  - Said by [William Hague](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/William_Hague \"William Hague\"). [Downing Street rejects Hague call for snap election](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-39188042) *BBC News* (7 March 2017)\n\n- Our laws will then be made in [London](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/London \"London\"), [Edinburgh](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Edinburgh \"Edinburgh\"), [Cardiff](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Cardiff \"Cardiff\") and [Belfast](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Belfast \"Belfast\") and interpreted not by [judges](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Judges \"Judges\") in [Luxembourg](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Luxembourg \"Luxembourg\") but by judges across the United Kingdom\n  - Said by [David Davis](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/David_Davis \"David Davis\"). [Brexit: UK sets out plans to replace all EU laws](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-39439554) *BBC News* (30 March 2017)\n\n- Your Prime Minister, your MP, Theresa May, called this election about Brexit. Have we heard from her what she plans to do about Brexit? No. This is mad. On Thursday, you are going to be faced with Prime Minister May, or [Prime Minister Corbyn](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Jeremy_Corbyn \"Jeremy Corbyn\"), against twenty-seven [prime ministers](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Prime_Minister \"Prime Minister\") from the European Union. It will be a shitshow.\n  - Said by [Lord Buckethead](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Lord_Buckethead \"Lord Buckethead\"). [Speaking a local hustings in Maidenhead](https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FJzW_gFoXR0) (5 June 2017)\n\n- There are two kinds of European nations. There are small nations and there are countries that have not yet realized they are small nations.\n  - Said by [Kristian Jensen](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kristian_Jensen \"w:Kristian Jensen\") (13 June 2017), as cited in [\"Brits angry at Dane's 'small nation' jibe\"](https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/kristian-jensen-brits-angry-at-danes-small-nation-jibe\/), *Politico* (13 June 2017).\n  - Speaking at the Road To Brexit conference in Copenhagen, Jensen was [Denmark](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Denmark \"Denmark\")'s Finance Minister at the time. [Dominic Schroeder](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dominic_Schroeder \"w:Dominic Schroeder\"), then British ambassador to Denmark, said he saw no sign of his country being a \"of a diminished or diminishing power\".\n\n- No deal is better than a bad deal\n  - Said by [Theresa May](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Theresa_May \"Theresa May\"). [Boris Johnson: EU can 'go whistle' over Brexit divorce bill](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-40571123), *BBC News*, 11 July 2017\n\n- Since the Brexit negotiations begun there's a third emotion I've been feeling - embarrassment. Embarrassment at our country's leaders. Embarrassment for [Great Britain](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Great_Britain \"Great Britain\").\n  - Said by [Vince Cable](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Vince_Cable \"Vince Cable\"). [Anti-Brexit marchers rally in Parliament Square](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-41212505) *BBC News* (9 September 2017)\n\n#### 2018\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=12 \"Edit section: 2018\")\\]\n\n- As Europe struggled to recover from [recession](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Great_Recession \"Great Recession\"), in 2015 the British prime minister [David Cameron](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/David_Cameron \"David Cameron\") tossed [Brussels](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brussels \"Brussels\") a grenade. He said he would hold a referendum on the UK’s continued EU membership the following year. The torch of [British Euroscepticism](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Euroscepticism_in_the_United_Kingdom \"w:Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom\") had passed from [left](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Left-wing_politics \"Left-wing politics\") to [right](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Right-wing_politics \"Right-wing politics\"). It was now [Conservatives](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Conservative_Party_\\(UK\\) \"Conservative Party (UK)\") rather than [Labour](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Labour_Party_\\(United_Kingdom\\) \"w:Labour Party (United Kingdom)\") who were most anti-European. Cameron’s attempts to appease his ‘leave’ voters by negotiating reforms to the EU were dismissed by the ever cautious [Merkel](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Angela_Merkel \"Angela Merkel\") and, in June 2016, to Cameron’s surprise and dismay, the British electorate voted narrowly to leave the EU. The vote was taken as binding by the [government](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Government_of_the_United_Kingdom \"Government of the United Kingdom\"). The date decided by Parliament for departure was March 2019.\n  - Simon Jenkins, *A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin* (2018)\n- Britain’s departure could not lightly be dismissed. Its economy was second only to [Germany’s](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Economy_of_Germany \"Economy of Germany\") in size, and contributed twenty per cent of the EU budget. The UK might long have been half-hearted in its commitment to European union, but now it was not alone. A Pew survey in mid-2016 was one of many showing disapproval of the EU as high in [Germany](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Germany \"Germany\") and the [Netherlands](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Netherlands \"Netherlands\") as in Britain, and higher in [France](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/France \"France\") and [Spain](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Spain \"Spain\"). Few governments dared imitate Britain and hold an open vote on continued membership. Union might be popular but the EU was not.\n  - Simon Jenkins, *A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin* (2018)\n\n- Brexit has been pushed by certain people who predicted easy solutions. Brexit has shown us one thing - and I fully respect British sovereignty in saying this - it has demonstrated that those who said you can easily do without Europe, that it will all go very well, that it is easy and there will be lots of money, are liars. This is all the more true because they left the next day, so they didn't have to manage it.\n  - Said by [Emmanuel Macron](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Emmanuel_Macron \"Emmanuel Macron\"). [Donald Tusk: Theresa May's Brexit trade plan won't work](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-45586010) *BBC News* (20 September 2018)\n\n- Crashing out of Europe with no deal risks being a national disaster.\n  - Said by [Jeremy Corbyn](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Jeremy_Corbyn \"Jeremy Corbyn\"). [Brexit: Jeremy Corbyn meets Michel Barnier for 'useful' talks](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-45660640), *BBC News*, 27 September 2018\n\n- Brexit was not our choice, it is the choice of the UK. Our proposal tries to help the UK in managing the negative fallout of Brexit in [Northern Ireland](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Northern_Ireland \"Northern Ireland\") in a way that respects the territorial integrity of the UK.\n  - Said by [Michel Barnier](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Michel_Barnier \"Michel Barnier\"). [Brexit negotiators working 'day and night' for agreement](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-45816306) *BBC News* (10 October 2018)\n\n- For me, getting a good Brexit is about securing the freedoms and opportunities to plough our own furrow whilst enjoying a relationship of co-operation and trade with mainland Europe.\n  - Said by [Derek Thomas](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Derek_Thomas \"Derek Thomas\"). Quoted in the Falmouth Packet. [Brexit conversation in Helston with MP Derek Thomas](https:\/\/www.falmouthpacket.co.uk\/news\/17215013.brexit-conversation-in-helston-with-mp-derek-thomas\/) (10 November 2018)\n\n#### 2019\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=13 \"Edit section: 2019\")\\]\n\n- Therefore now in the national interest we have got to come together and secure a compromise. If we can't do that, well yes, we have to go back to the people.\n  - Said by [John McDonnell](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/John_McDonnell \"John McDonnell\"). [Brexit: Labour plan can get majority, says John McDonnell](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-47170369) *BBC News* (8 February 2019)\n\n- Britain is basically [Pompeii](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pompeii \"w:Pompeii\") if Pompeii had voted for [the volcano](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eruption_of_Mount_Vesuvius_in_79 \"w:Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79\").\n  - Said by [John Oliver](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/John_Oliver \"John Oliver\") about Brexit \"[Brexit III](https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HaBQfSAVt0s&t=870)\" (*ff.* 0:14:30), (17 February 2019).\n\n- You cannot drag out Brexit for a decade.\n  - Said by [Heiko Maas](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Heiko_Maas \"Heiko Maas\"). [Brexit: Tusk says UK MEPs could sit for 'months or longer'](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-47946256) *BBC News* (16 April 2019)\n\n- We've got to a stage where we feel that any deal is so controversial and may well be so far from what people voted for when they voted to leave, that we think that it is probably appropriate… that we say to the people, 'Is this what you wanted?' We just want to check. Because if it isn't, then let's stay.\n  - Said by [Emily Thornberry](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Emily_Thornberry \"Emily Thornberry\"). [2019 European elections: Labour MPs push for referendum pledge](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-48068207) *BBC News* (26 April 2019)\n\n- I want us to leave the European Union, I think we should have left on the 29th of March but we've got these elections and I think it's really important that there's a good vote for ... people who do want to leave.\n  - Said by [Jacob Rees-Mogg](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Jacob_Rees-Mogg \"Jacob Rees-Mogg\"). Quoted by the BBC. [European elections 2019: Rees-Mogg backs Conservative candidate](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-wales-politics-48213519) (9 May 2019)\n\n- It is my honestly held view that Parliament will not be able to get a deal on Brexit and therefore the only choice, reluctantly, is to ask the people to take another look at it.\n  - Said by [Tom Watson](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Tom_Watson_\\(Labour_politician\\) \"Tom Watson (Labour politician)\"). [Brexit: 'High price to pay' for Labour stance, says Watson](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-48658683) *BBC News* (17 June 2019)\n\n- If the UK doesn’t pay what is due, the EU will not negotiate a trade deal.\n  - Said by [Guy Verhofstadt](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Guy_Verhofstadt \"Guy Verhofstadt\"). Quoted by the Independent [Boris Johnson news – live: EU 'will block trade deal' if UK refuses to pay £39bn divorce bill, as No 10 warns MPs they can't stop no-deal](https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/politics\/boris-johnson-news-live-brexit-speech-g7-press-conference-latest-a9078836.html) (26 August 2019)\n\n- I'm against any form of Brexit, I want to stop Brexit, but in particular a no-deal Brexit I think will be catastrophic for our economy, society, for a long time to come\n  - Said by [Nicola Sturgeon](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nicola_Sturgeon \"Nicola Sturgeon\"). [Nicola Sturgeon: Stopping no-deal Brexit is priority](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-49550873) *BBC News* (2 September 2019)\n\n#### 2020\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=14 \"Edit section: 2020\")\\]\n\n- **The more divergence there is, the more distant the partnership has to be.** Without an extension of the transition period beyond 2020, you cannot expect to agree on every single aspect of our new partnership. Without the freedom of movement of people, you cannot have the free movement of [capital](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Capital \"Capital\"), [goods](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Commodity \"Commodity\") and [services](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Service \"Service\"). Without a level playing field on [environment](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Environment \"Environment\"), [labour](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Labour \"Labour\"), [taxation](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Taxation \"Taxation\") and state aid, you cannot have highest-quality access to the world’s largest single market.\n  - Said by [Ursula von der Leyen](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Ursula_von_der_Leyen \"Ursula von der Leyen\"). [Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen have 'positive' meeting](https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2020\/jan\/08\/ursula-von-der-leyen-uk-deadline-makes-full-brexit-deal-impossible) *The Guardian* (8 January 2019)\n\n- There is no need to give in on fish to complete a Free Trade Agreement. The UK must be firm - no more concessions. An FTA is in the EU's interest so dig in.\n  - From a series of tweets by [John Redwood](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Redwood \"w:John Redwood\"), a pro-Brexit MP. [\"BBC under fire as reporter brands Brexit fishing expectations 'hopelessly naive'\"](https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/news\/uk\/1226562\/BBC-news-Brexit-fisheries-UK-EU-deal-John-Redwood-Boris-Johnson-France-latest), *Express* (10 January 2020)\n\n- Thank you, goodbye, and **good riddance**.\n  - Croatian representative to the EU Irena Andrassy to UK counterpart [Tim Barrow](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tim_Barrow \"w:Tim Barrow\") (reportedly mistaking “good riddance” as being like “good luck”) — [*Financial Times*](https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/03d18b2a-4698-11ea-aeb3-955839e06441) (29 January 2020)\n\n- So this is it, the final chapter, the end of the road. A 47-year political experiment that the British frankly have never been very happy with. **My mother and father signed up to a [common market](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Common_Market \"w:Common Market\"), not to a political union, [flags](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Flag \"Flag\"), [anthems](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Anthem \"Anthem\"), [presidents](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/President \"President\"), and now you even want your own [army](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Military \"Military\").** For me, it has been 27 years of campaigning and over 20 years here in this parliament. I’m not particularly happy with the agreement we’re being asked to vote on tonight. But [Boris](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Boris_Johnson \"Boris Johnson\") has been remarkably bold in the last few months… he’s promised us there will be no level playing field, and on that basis, I wish him every success in the next round of negotiations, I really do.\n  - [Nigel Farage](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nigel_Farage \"Nigel Farage\"), EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, *Breitbart news*\n\n- **What happens at 11pm this Friday the 31st of January 2020 marks the point of no return. Once we’ve left, we’re never coming back and the rest frankly is detail.** We’re going, and we will be gone. And that should be the summit of my own political ambitions. I walked in here, you all thought it was terribly funny but you stopped laughing in 2016. But my view of Europe has changed since I joined. In 2005, I saw the constitution that had been drafted… and saw it rejected by the [French](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/France \"France\") in a referendum. I saw it rejected by the [Dutch](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Netherlands \"Netherlands\") in a referendum. And I saw you, in these institutions, ignore them. \\[You brought it back\\] as the [Lisbon treaty](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Treaty_of_Lisbon \"w:Treaty of Lisbon\"), and boast you could ram it through without there being referendums. Well, the [Irish](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Republic_of_Ireland \"Republic of Ireland\") did have a vote and did say no, and were forced to vote again. You’re very good at making people to vote again, but what we’ve proved is the British are too big to bully, thank goodness. So I became an outright opponent of the whole European project. I want Brexit to start a debate across the whole of Europe. **What do we want from Europe? If we want trade, friendship cooperation, reciprocity, we don’t need a [European Commission](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/European_Commission \"w:European Commission\"), we don’t need a European court. We don’t need these institutions and all of this power.** And I can promise you, both in UKIP and in the Brexit party, we love Europe. We just hate the European Union.\n  - [Nigel Farage](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nigel_Farage \"Nigel Farage\"), EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, *Breitbart news*\n\n- **I hope this begins the end of this project. It is a bad project. It isn’t just undemocratic, it is antidemocratic.** It puts in that front row, it gives people power without unaccountability. People who cannot be held to account by the electorate and that is an unacceptable structure.\n  - [Nigel Farage](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nigel_Farage \"Nigel Farage\"), EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, *Breitbart news*\n\n- **There is a historic battle going on across the west, in Europe, [America](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/United_States \"United States\"), and elsewhere. It is [globalism](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Globalism \"Globalism\") against [populism](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Populism \"Populism\"). And you may loathe populism, but I’ll tell you a funny thing. It is becoming very popular\\!** And it has great benefits. No more financial contributions, no more European Courts of Justice. No more European Common Fisheries Policy, no more being talked down to. No more being bullied, no more [Guy Verhofstadt](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Guy_Verhofstadt \"Guy Verhofstadt\")! What’s not to like. I know you’re going to miss us, I know you want to ban our national flags, but we’re going to wave you goodbye, and we’ll look forward in the future to working with you as a [sovereign](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Sovereignty \"Sovereignty\") nation… \\[Farage is cut off by the chair\\]\n  - [Nigel Farage](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nigel_Farage \"Nigel Farage\"), EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, *Breitbart news*\n- In Britain, [hard-right revisionism](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Far-right_politics \"Far-right politics\") packed itself into the single, self-destructive nuclear option of Brexit. From the 2000s, anti-Europeanism was pursued with skill and determination by the upstart UKIP party (founded 1993) and among Conservatives by the old, unreconciled, Britain-first rump, perhaps a third of the parliamentary party. Shaken by diplomatic failures with his European partners and spooked by the rise of British anti-Europeanism, David Cameron, who was prime minister from 2010 to 2016, called a referendum on British membership of the EU, which he expected to win. On narrowly losing, rather than play for time a shaken Cameron announced within hours that “the instruction” of “the people” should be “delivered.” He resigned, leaving to his successors, [Theresa May](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Theresa_May \"Theresa May\") and [Boris Johnson](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Boris_Johnson \"Boris Johnson\"), an anti-liberal, populist discourse of people against elites, [democracy](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Democracy \"Democracy\") against [parliament](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom \"Parliament of the United Kingdom\"), which May nibbled at and Johnson swallowed whole.\n  - Edmund Fawcett, *Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition* (2020), p. 349\n- The rebellion against membership of the European Union, culminating in the British ‘Brexit’ referendum on 23 June 2016, represents a new highwater mark for anxious and distrustful popular sentiment. A little more than seventy years after the war against [extreme nationalism](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Far-right_politics \"Far-right politics\") appeared won, a small but clear majority of those who chose to vote essentially reaffirmed the near-absolute primacy of [nationalism](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nationalism \"Nationalism\") over [internationalism](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Internationalism \"Internationalism\"), reversing the political direction in which the United Kingdom and the rest of [Europe](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Europe \"Europe\") had appeared to be travelling since 1945. In the [United States](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/United_States \"United States\"), a phrase with dubious historical pedigree, ‘[America First](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/America_First_\\(policy\\) \"America First (policy)\")’, has become current once more. What we are living through is not, of course, precisely a repeat of the [1930s](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Great_Depression \"Great Depression\"). However, the study of the 1930s reminds us of the dangers of crass [inequality](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Social_inequality \"Social inequality\"), of international ‘beggar-my-neighbour’ competition, of the capacity of marginalized [social groups](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Social_group \"Social group\") for extreme violence based on the scapegoating of minorities, and of the many other consequences that flow from irresponsible and often sadly misjudged notions of national self-interest.\n  - Frederick Taylor, *1939: A People's History* (2020)\n\n- **[Scotland](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Scotland \"Scotland\") will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on.**\n  - Scottish First Minister [Nicola Sturgeon](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nicola_Sturgeon \"Nicola Sturgeon\"), Scottish First Minister, via [Twitter](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Twitter \"Twitter\"), according to [Brexit: New era for UK as it completes separation from European Union](https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-politics-55502781) posted December 31, 2020\n\n#### 2022\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=15 \"Edit section: 2022\")\\]\n\n- Also, would a referendum settle this issue (Repeal of [Section 377A](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Section_377A_\\(Singapore\\) \"wikipedia:Section 377A (Singapore)\")) once and for all? May I remind Members and the PSP what happened in the UK with Brexit. Both sides campaigned vigorously and bitterly. It created and entrenched polarised identities. \\[...\\] In the process, the credibility of the British government was severely damaged. **Indeed, it has yet to recover.**\n  - [Masagos Zulkifli](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Masagos_Zulkifli \"wikipedia:Masagos Zulkifli\"), Singapore Parl Debates; Vol 95, Sitting No 77; 29 November 2022.\n\n## External links\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=16 \"Edit section: External links\")\\]\n\n[![Wikipedia](https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/8\/80\/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg\/60px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png)](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/File:Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg \"Wikipedia\")\n\nWikipedia\n\n[Wikipedia](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia \"Wikipedia\") has an article about:\n\n***[Brexit](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Brexit \"wikipedia:Brexit\")***\n\n[![Wiktionary](https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/e\/ec\/Wiktionary-logo.svg\/60px-Wiktionary-logo.svg.png)](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/File:Wiktionary-logo.svg \"Wiktionary\")\n\nWiktionary\n\nLook up ***[Brexit](https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Brexit \"wiktionary:Brexit\")*** in [Wiktionary](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wiktionary \"w:Wiktionary\"), the free dictionary\n\n[![Commons](https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/4\/4a\/Commons-logo.svg\/60px-Commons-logo.svg.png)](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/File:Commons-logo.svg \"Commons\")\n\nCommons\n\n[Wikimedia Commons](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikimedia_Commons \"w:Wikimedia Commons\") has media related to:\n\n***[Brexit](https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/Category:Brexit \"commons:Category:Brexit\")***\n\n![](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Special:CentralAutoLogin\/start?useformat=desktop&type=1x1&usesul3=1)\n\nRetrieved from \"<https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&oldid=3782692>\"\n\n[Categories](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Special:Categories \"Special:Categories\"):\n\n- [Politics of the United Kingdom](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Category:Politics_of_the_United_Kingdom \"Category:Politics of the United Kingdom\")\n- [2010s in the United Kingdom](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Category:2010s_in_the_United_Kingdom \"Category:2010s in the United Kingdom\")\n- [2010s in politics](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Category:2010s_in_politics \"Category:2010s in politics\")\n\n- This page was last edited on 22 July 2025, at 15:32.\n- Text is available under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License](https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/); additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the [Terms of Use](https:\/\/foundation.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/Special:MyLanguage\/Policy:Terms_of_Use) and [Privacy Policy.](https:\/\/foundation.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/Special:MyLanguage\/Policy:Privacy_policy)\n\n- [Privacy policy](https:\/\/foundation.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/Special:MyLanguage\/Policy:Privacy_policy)\n- [About Wikiquote](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Wikiquote:About)\n- [Disclaimers](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Wikiquote:General_disclaimer)\n- [Code of Conduct](https:\/\/foundation.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/Special:MyLanguage\/Policy:Universal_Code_of_Conduct)\n- [Developers](https:\/\/developer.wikimedia.org\/)\n- [Statistics](https:\/\/stats.wikimedia.org\/#\/en.wikiquote.org)\n- [Cookie statement](https:\/\/foundation.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/Special:MyLanguage\/Policy:Cookie_statement)\n- [Mobile view](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&mobileaction=toggle_view_mobile)\n\n- [![Wikimedia Foundation](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/static\/images\/footer\/wikimedia.svg)](https:\/\/www.wikimedia.org\/)\n- [![Powered by MediaWiki](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/resources\/assets\/mediawiki_compact.svg)](https:\/\/www.mediawiki.org\/)\n\nSearch\n\nToggle the table of contents\n\nBrexit\n\n5 languages\n\n[Add topic](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brexit)","attrs_readable_markdown":"[![](https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/2\/21\/European_Union_United_Kingdom_Locator.svg\/250px-European_Union_United_Kingdom_Locator.svg.png)](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/File:European_Union_United_Kingdom_Locator.svg)\n\nThe British people have voted to leave the European Union ~ [David Cameron](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/David_Cameron \"David Cameron\")\n\n[![](https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/9\/97\/EU-Austritt_%2847521165961%29.svg\/250px-EU-Austritt_%2847521165961%29.svg.png)](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/File:EU-Austritt_\\(47521165961\\).svg)\n\nWhat happens at 11pm this Friday the 31st of January 2020 marks the point of no return. Once we’ve left, we’re never coming back and the rest frankly is detail. ~ [Nigel Farage](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nigel_Farage \"Nigel Farage\")\n\n**[Brexit](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Brexit \"w:Brexit\")** (a portmanteau of \"British\" and \"exit\") is the withdrawal of the [United Kingdom](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/United_Kingdom \"United Kingdom\") from the [European Union](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/European_Union \"European Union\"). Following a [referendum](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2016_EU_referendum \"w:2016 EU referendum\") held on 23 June 2016 in which 51.9 percent of those voting supported leaving the EU, the Government [invoked Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_Kingdom_invocation_of_Article_50_of_the_Treaty_on_European_Union \"w:United Kingdom invocation of Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union\") which started a two-year leaving process which was due to conclude with the UK's exit on the 29 March 2019 and then, after an extension, on 31 October 2019. The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020.\n\n## Quotes about Brexit\n\\[[edit](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/w\/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=1 \"Edit section: Quotes about Brexit\")\\]\n\n- We [\\[UKIP\\]](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/UKIP \"w:UKIP\") seek an amicable divorce from the [European Union](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/European_Union \"w:European Union\") and its replacement with a genuine [free-trade](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Free_trade \"Free trade\") agreement, which is what my parents' generation thought we’d signed up for in the first place.\n  - Said by [Nigel Farage](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nigel_Farage \"Nigel Farage\"). [UKIP news, issue 56](http:\/\/www.ukip.org\/media\/pdf\/ukipnewsissue56.pdf), July 2004.\n\n- We no longer enjoy the same [liberties](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Liberty \"Liberty\") Americans do. We don't have a [constitution](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Constitutions \"Constitutions\"). We don't have a [First Amendment](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution \"First Amendment to the United States Constitution\"). What we have, and what the whole of [Europe](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Europe \"Europe\") has, is the [Lisbon Treaty](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Lisbon_Treaty \"Lisbon Treaty\"), a kind of top-down [constitution](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Constitutions \"Constitutions\") that has been imposed on us against our will. And, unlike the [American Constitution](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/United_States_Constitution \"United States Constitution\") which empowers the people, the European constitution dis-empowers the people, and empowers the un-elected [bureaucrats](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Bureaucracy \"Bureaucracy\") and career [politicians](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Politicians \"Politicians\") for whose sole benefit it was created.\n  - [Pat Condell](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Pat_Condell \"Pat Condell\"), [\"Europe needs a revolution\"](http:\/\/listenonrepeat.com\/watch?v=s3u9LB32YYM) (25 August 2011), from [YouTube](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/YouTube \"w:YouTube\")\n\n- Once again, I challenge the Prime Minister to have an open debate with me on why he believes we must stay part of this failing, corrupt EU. The future of our nation is at stake. [Mr Cameron](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/David_Cameron \"David Cameron\"), you have my phone number.\n  - [Nigel Farage](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nigel_Farage \"Nigel Farage\") [\"The time will never be right for David Cameron to hold a referendum on the EU\"](http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/worldnews\/europe\/eu\/9378567\/The-time-will-never-be-right-for-David-Cameron-to-hold-a-referendum-on-the-EU.html), *The Telegraph* (5 July 2012)\n\n- \\[Brexit\\] is stupidity for a country with 53 percent of its exports going to [the Continent](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Continental_Europe \"w:Continental Europe\") and to the rest of Europe. It’s even so stupid that Britain’s best friends, the [U.S.](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/United_States \"United States\"), don’t understand it all.\n  - Said by [Guy Verhofstadt](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Guy_Verhofstadt \"Guy Verhofstadt\"). Quoted by Politico. [Guy Verhofstadt’s 7 best Brexit burns](https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/european-parliament-negotiator-guy-verhofstadts-7-best-brexit-burns\/) (Quoted in August 2016; Said in January 2013)\n\n- \\[An in\/out referendum is\\] going to put Britain through years of uncertainty, and take a huge gamble with [our economy](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Economy_of_the_United_Kingdom \"Economy of the United Kingdom\").\n  - Said by [Ed Miliband](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Ed_Miliband \"Ed Miliband\"). [David Cameron promises in\/out referendum on EU](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-21148282) *BBC News* (23 January 2013)\n\n- Years of uncertainty caused by a future EU referendum would hit [jobs](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Jobs \"Jobs\") and [growth](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Economic_growth \"Economic growth\") and this is not in the national interest\n  - Said by [Nick Clegg](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nick_Clegg \"Nick Clegg\"). [David Cameron promises in\/out referendum on EU](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-21148282) *BBC News* (23 January 2013)\n\n- I am ready to campaign with all my heart and soul to keep Britain inside a reformed European Union\n  - Said by [David Cameron](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/David_Cameron \"David Cameron\"). Quoted by the BBC. [Donald Tusk: Deal on UK's EU renegotiation 'very tough'](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-34803222) (12 November 2015)\n\n- Let me be clear. Leaving Europe would threaten our economic and our [national security](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/National_security \"National security\").\n  - Said by [David Cameron](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/David_Cameron \"David Cameron\") Quoted by the Independent. [David Cameron's EU referendum date announcement: Full text of speech](https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/politics\/david-camerons-eu-referendum-date-announcement-full-text-of-speech-a6886191.html) (20 February 2016)\n\n- \\[Britain would be\\] freer, fairer and better off outside the EU\n  - Said by [Michael Gove](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Michael_Gove \"Michael Gove\"). Quoted by the BBC. [UK 'better off' out of EU - Michael Gove](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35617843) (20 February 2016)\n\n- The EU offers our small [businesses](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Business \"Business\") and [tourism](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Tourism \"Tourism\") sector huge opportunities, I can't understand why anyone would want to shut those opportunities down\n  - Said by [Tim Farron](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Tim_Farron \"Tim Farron\"). ['Huge' business and tourism opportunities from EU - Farron](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-wales-politics-35653200) *BBC News* (25 February 2016)\n\n- My judgment is that remaining a member of the European Union means we will be more secure from [crime](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Crime \"Crime\") and [terrorism](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Terrorism \"Terrorism\").\n  - Said by [Theresa May](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Theresa_May \"Theresa May\"). [EU migration: UK to face 'free-for-all', Michael Gove warns](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36126993), *BBC News*, (25 April 2016)\n\n- The Leavers don't seem to have much clue about what is to happen afterwards. Curious, considering so many of them have spent their adult lives agitating for this moment. Their approach appears to be a version of [Napoleon](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Napoleon \"Napoleon\")'s battle strategy: 'On se dégage, et puis on voit.' What exactly is Out supposed to entail? How do they picture Britain's relationship with the EU, and with the rest of the world, after they’ve secured a vote for Exit on 23 June?\n  - [Ferdinand Mount](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Ferdinand_Mount \"Ferdinand Mount\") [\"Nigels against the World\"](http:\/\/www.lrb.co.uk\/v38\/n10\/ferdinand-mount\/nigels-against-the-world), *London Review of Books* 38:10 (19 May 2016)\n\n- The [Labour Party](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Labour_Party \"w:Labour Party\") is about as united as it possibly can be in asking people to Remain\n  - Said by [Tom Watson](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Tom_Watson_\\(Labour_politician\\) \"Tom Watson (Labour politician)\"). [EU referendum: Labour urges its voters not to back Brexit](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36496288) *BBC News* (10 June 2016)\n\n- As a [historian](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Historian \"Historian\") I fear Brexit could be the beginning of the destruction of not only the EU but also Western political civilisation in its entirety\n  - Said by [Donald Tusk](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Donald_Tusk \"Donald Tusk\"). [Donald Tusk: Brexit could destroy Western political civilisation](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36515680) *BBC News* (13 June 2016)\n\n- Every family knows that a [divorce](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Divorce \"Divorce\") is traumatic for everyone. Everyone in the EU, but especially the Brits themselves, would lose out economically \\[if Britain left the EU\\].\n  - Said by [Donald Tusk](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Donald_Tusk \"Donald Tusk\"). [Donald Tusk: Brexit could destroy Western political civilisation](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36515680) *BBC News* (13 June 2016)\n\n- The British people have voted to leave the European Union and their will must be respected\n  - Said by [David Cameron](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/David_Cameron \"David Cameron\"). [Brexit: David Cameron to quit after UK votes to leave EU](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-36615028) *BBC News* (24 June 2016)\n\n- Brexit means Brexit, and we're going to make a success of it.\n  - Said by [Theresa May](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Theresa_May \"Theresa May\"). [Theresa May Says UK Will Make Success Of Brexit When She Is PM](https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zV6n6zNVw_I), *Sky News - Youtube*, 11 July 2016. (On 24 July 2019 Theresa May stood down as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom without Brexit having been achieved.)\n\n- The referendum is not binding.\n  - Written by [Ken Clarke](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Ken_Clarke \"Ken Clarke\") in a letter to constiuents after the [2016 EU referendum](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2016_United_Kingdom_European_Union_membership_referendum \"w:2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum\") and quoted in [the Guardian](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Guardian \"w:The Guardian\"). Asthana, Anushka and Mason, Rowena (13 September 2016) [Ken Clarke tells constituents: 'EU referendum is not binding'](https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2016\/sep\/13\/ken-clarke-tory-constituent-brexit-eu-referendum-not-binding) in the Guardian. Retrieved 8 July 2019.\n- Yes, on November 8, you Joe Blow, Steve Blow, Bob Blow, Billy Blow, all the Blows get to go and blow up the whole goddamn system because it's your right. [Trump's election](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2016_United_States_presidential_election \"w:2016 United States presidential election\") is going to be the biggest \"fuck you\" ever recorded in human history and it will feel *good* — for a day. Maybe a week. Possibly a month. And then, like the Brits, who wanted to send a message, so they voted to leave Europe, only to find out that if you vote to leave Europe, you actually have to leave Europe. And now they regret it. All the [Ohioans](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Ohio \"Ohio\"), [Pennsylvanians](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Pennsylvania \"Pennsylvania\"), [Michiganders](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Michigan \"Michigan\"), and [Wisconsinites](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Wisconsin \"Wisconsin\") of Middle England, right, they all voted to leave and now they regret it. And over 4 million of them signed a petition to have a do-over, they want another election, but it's not going to happen. Because you used the ballot as an anger management tool. And now you're fucked. And the rest of Europe. They're like, \"Bye Felicia!\" So when the rightfully angry people of Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin find out after a few months in office that [President Trump](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Donald_Trump \"Donald Trump\") wasn't going to do a damn thing for them, it will be too late to do anything about it.\n  - [Michael Moore](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Michael_Moore \"Michael Moore\")*, Michael Moore in TrumpLand* (October 7, 2016)\n- Being a member of EU comes with rights and benefits. Third countries (non members as the UK will be after Brexit) can never have the same rights and benefits since they are not subject to the same obligations. The single market and its four [freedoms](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Freedom \"Freedom\") (which includes freedom of movement) are indivisible. Cherry picking is not an option.\n  - Said by [Michel Barnier](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Michel_Barnier \"Michel Barnier\"). [Brexit: EU negotiator says 'time's short' for reaching deal](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-38221140) *BBC News* (6 December 2016)\n\n- I wish the result had gone the other way. I campaigned passionately for that. But as [democrats](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Democracy \"Democracy\") our party has to accept that result and it follows that the [prime minister](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom \"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom\") should not be blocked from starting the Article 50 negotiations.\n  - Said by [Keir Starmer](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Keir_Starmer \"Keir Starmer\"). [Brexit decision 'difficult' for Labour, Keir Starmer says](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-38799686) *BBC News* (31 January 2017)\n\n- Any \\[Brexit\\] deal is bound to be full of compromises which one group or another in [Parliament](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom \"Parliament of the United Kingdom\") finds difficult to stomach.\n  - Said by [William Hague](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/William_Hague \"William Hague\"). [Downing Street rejects Hague call for snap election](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-39188042) *BBC News* (7 March 2017)\n\n- Our laws will then be made in [London](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/London \"London\"), [Edinburgh](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Edinburgh \"Edinburgh\"), [Cardiff](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Cardiff \"Cardiff\") and [Belfast](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Belfast \"Belfast\") and interpreted not by [judges](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Judges \"Judges\") in [Luxembourg](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Luxembourg \"Luxembourg\") but by judges across the United Kingdom\n  - Said by [David Davis](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/David_Davis \"David Davis\"). [Brexit: UK sets out plans to replace all EU laws](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-39439554) *BBC News* (30 March 2017)\n\n- Your Prime Minister, your MP, Theresa May, called this election about Brexit. Have we heard from her what she plans to do about Brexit? No. This is mad. On Thursday, you are going to be faced with Prime Minister May, or [Prime Minister Corbyn](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Jeremy_Corbyn \"Jeremy Corbyn\"), against twenty-seven [prime ministers](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Prime_Minister \"Prime Minister\") from the European Union. It will be a shitshow.\n  - Said by [Lord Buckethead](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Lord_Buckethead \"Lord Buckethead\"). [Speaking a local hustings in Maidenhead](https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FJzW_gFoXR0) (5 June 2017)\n\n- There are two kinds of European nations. There are small nations and there are countries that have not yet realized they are small nations.\n  - Said by [Kristian Jensen](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kristian_Jensen \"w:Kristian Jensen\") (13 June 2017), as cited in [\"Brits angry at Dane's 'small nation' jibe\"](https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/kristian-jensen-brits-angry-at-danes-small-nation-jibe\/), *Politico* (13 June 2017).\n  - Speaking at the Road To Brexit conference in Copenhagen, Jensen was [Denmark](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Denmark \"Denmark\")'s Finance Minister at the time. [Dominic Schroeder](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dominic_Schroeder \"w:Dominic Schroeder\"), then British ambassador to Denmark, said he saw no sign of his country being a \"of a diminished or diminishing power\".\n\n- No deal is better than a bad deal\n  - Said by [Theresa May](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Theresa_May \"Theresa May\"). [Boris Johnson: EU can 'go whistle' over Brexit divorce bill](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-40571123), *BBC News*, 11 July 2017\n\n- Since the Brexit negotiations begun there's a third emotion I've been feeling - embarrassment. Embarrassment at our country's leaders. Embarrassment for [Great Britain](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Great_Britain \"Great Britain\").\n  - Said by [Vince Cable](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Vince_Cable \"Vince Cable\"). [Anti-Brexit marchers rally in Parliament Square](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-41212505) *BBC News* (9 September 2017)\n\n- As Europe struggled to recover from [recession](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Great_Recession \"Great Recession\"), in 2015 the British prime minister [David Cameron](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/David_Cameron \"David Cameron\") tossed [Brussels](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Brussels \"Brussels\") a grenade. He said he would hold a referendum on the UK’s continued EU membership the following year. The torch of [British Euroscepticism](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Euroscepticism_in_the_United_Kingdom \"w:Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom\") had passed from [left](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Left-wing_politics \"Left-wing politics\") to [right](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Right-wing_politics \"Right-wing politics\"). It was now [Conservatives](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Conservative_Party_\\(UK\\) \"Conservative Party (UK)\") rather than [Labour](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Labour_Party_\\(United_Kingdom\\) \"w:Labour Party (United Kingdom)\") who were most anti-European. Cameron’s attempts to appease his ‘leave’ voters by negotiating reforms to the EU were dismissed by the ever cautious [Merkel](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Angela_Merkel \"Angela Merkel\") and, in June 2016, to Cameron’s surprise and dismay, the British electorate voted narrowly to leave the EU. The vote was taken as binding by the [government](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Government_of_the_United_Kingdom \"Government of the United Kingdom\"). The date decided by Parliament for departure was March 2019.\n  - Simon Jenkins, *A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin* (2018)\n- Britain’s departure could not lightly be dismissed. Its economy was second only to [Germany’s](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Economy_of_Germany \"Economy of Germany\") in size, and contributed twenty per cent of the EU budget. The UK might long have been half-hearted in its commitment to European union, but now it was not alone. A Pew survey in mid-2016 was one of many showing disapproval of the EU as high in [Germany](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Germany \"Germany\") and the [Netherlands](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Netherlands \"Netherlands\") as in Britain, and higher in [France](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/France \"France\") and [Spain](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Spain \"Spain\"). Few governments dared imitate Britain and hold an open vote on continued membership. Union might be popular but the EU was not.\n  - Simon Jenkins, *A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin* (2018)\n\n- Brexit has been pushed by certain people who predicted easy solutions. Brexit has shown us one thing - and I fully respect British sovereignty in saying this - it has demonstrated that those who said you can easily do without Europe, that it will all go very well, that it is easy and there will be lots of money, are liars. This is all the more true because they left the next day, so they didn't have to manage it.\n  - Said by [Emmanuel Macron](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Emmanuel_Macron \"Emmanuel Macron\"). [Donald Tusk: Theresa May's Brexit trade plan won't work](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-45586010) *BBC News* (20 September 2018)\n\n- Crashing out of Europe with no deal risks being a national disaster.\n  - Said by [Jeremy Corbyn](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Jeremy_Corbyn \"Jeremy Corbyn\"). [Brexit: Jeremy Corbyn meets Michel Barnier for 'useful' talks](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-45660640), *BBC News*, 27 September 2018\n\n- Brexit was not our choice, it is the choice of the UK. Our proposal tries to help the UK in managing the negative fallout of Brexit in [Northern Ireland](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Northern_Ireland \"Northern Ireland\") in a way that respects the territorial integrity of the UK.\n  - Said by [Michel Barnier](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Michel_Barnier \"Michel Barnier\"). [Brexit negotiators working 'day and night' for agreement](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-45816306) *BBC News* (10 October 2018)\n\n- For me, getting a good Brexit is about securing the freedoms and opportunities to plough our own furrow whilst enjoying a relationship of co-operation and trade with mainland Europe.\n  - Said by [Derek Thomas](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Derek_Thomas \"Derek Thomas\"). Quoted in the Falmouth Packet. [Brexit conversation in Helston with MP Derek Thomas](https:\/\/www.falmouthpacket.co.uk\/news\/17215013.brexit-conversation-in-helston-with-mp-derek-thomas\/) (10 November 2018)\n\n- Therefore now in the national interest we have got to come together and secure a compromise. If we can't do that, well yes, we have to go back to the people.\n  - Said by [John McDonnell](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/John_McDonnell \"John McDonnell\"). [Brexit: Labour plan can get majority, says John McDonnell](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-47170369) *BBC News* (8 February 2019)\n\n- Britain is basically [Pompeii](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pompeii \"w:Pompeii\") if Pompeii had voted for [the volcano](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eruption_of_Mount_Vesuvius_in_79 \"w:Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79\").\n  - Said by [John Oliver](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/John_Oliver \"John Oliver\") about Brexit \"[Brexit III](https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HaBQfSAVt0s&t=870)\" (*ff.* 0:14:30), (17 February 2019).\n\n- You cannot drag out Brexit for a decade.\n  - Said by [Heiko Maas](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Heiko_Maas \"Heiko Maas\"). [Brexit: Tusk says UK MEPs could sit for 'months or longer'](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-47946256) *BBC News* (16 April 2019)\n\n- We've got to a stage where we feel that any deal is so controversial and may well be so far from what people voted for when they voted to leave, that we think that it is probably appropriate… that we say to the people, 'Is this what you wanted?' We just want to check. Because if it isn't, then let's stay.\n  - Said by [Emily Thornberry](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Emily_Thornberry \"Emily Thornberry\"). [2019 European elections: Labour MPs push for referendum pledge](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-48068207) *BBC News* (26 April 2019)\n\n- I want us to leave the European Union, I think we should have left on the 29th of March but we've got these elections and I think it's really important that there's a good vote for ... people who do want to leave.\n  - Said by [Jacob Rees-Mogg](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Jacob_Rees-Mogg \"Jacob Rees-Mogg\"). Quoted by the BBC. [European elections 2019: Rees-Mogg backs Conservative candidate](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-wales-politics-48213519) (9 May 2019)\n\n- It is my honestly held view that Parliament will not be able to get a deal on Brexit and therefore the only choice, reluctantly, is to ask the people to take another look at it.\n  - Said by [Tom Watson](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Tom_Watson_\\(Labour_politician\\) \"Tom Watson (Labour politician)\"). [Brexit: 'High price to pay' for Labour stance, says Watson](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-48658683) *BBC News* (17 June 2019)\n\n- If the UK doesn’t pay what is due, the EU will not negotiate a trade deal.\n  - Said by [Guy Verhofstadt](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Guy_Verhofstadt \"Guy Verhofstadt\"). Quoted by the Independent [Boris Johnson news – live: EU 'will block trade deal' if UK refuses to pay £39bn divorce bill, as No 10 warns MPs they can't stop no-deal](https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/politics\/boris-johnson-news-live-brexit-speech-g7-press-conference-latest-a9078836.html) (26 August 2019)\n\n- I'm against any form of Brexit, I want to stop Brexit, but in particular a no-deal Brexit I think will be catastrophic for our economy, society, for a long time to come\n  - Said by [Nicola Sturgeon](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nicola_Sturgeon \"Nicola Sturgeon\"). [Nicola Sturgeon: Stopping no-deal Brexit is priority](https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-49550873) *BBC News* (2 September 2019)\n\n- **The more divergence there is, the more distant the partnership has to be.** Without an extension of the transition period beyond 2020, you cannot expect to agree on every single aspect of our new partnership. Without the freedom of movement of people, you cannot have the free movement of [capital](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Capital \"Capital\"), [goods](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Commodity \"Commodity\") and [services](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Service \"Service\"). Without a level playing field on [environment](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Environment \"Environment\"), [labour](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Labour \"Labour\"), [taxation](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Taxation \"Taxation\") and state aid, you cannot have highest-quality access to the world’s largest single market.\n  - Said by [Ursula von der Leyen](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Ursula_von_der_Leyen \"Ursula von der Leyen\"). [Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen have 'positive' meeting](https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2020\/jan\/08\/ursula-von-der-leyen-uk-deadline-makes-full-brexit-deal-impossible) *The Guardian* (8 January 2019)\n\n- There is no need to give in on fish to complete a Free Trade Agreement. The UK must be firm - no more concessions. An FTA is in the EU's interest so dig in.\n  - From a series of tweets by [John Redwood](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Redwood \"w:John Redwood\"), a pro-Brexit MP. [\"BBC under fire as reporter brands Brexit fishing expectations 'hopelessly naive'\"](https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/news\/uk\/1226562\/BBC-news-Brexit-fisheries-UK-EU-deal-John-Redwood-Boris-Johnson-France-latest), *Express* (10 January 2020)\n\n- Thank you, goodbye, and **good riddance**.\n  - Croatian representative to the EU Irena Andrassy to UK counterpart [Tim Barrow](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tim_Barrow \"w:Tim Barrow\") (reportedly mistaking “good riddance” as being like “good luck”) — [*Financial Times*](https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/03d18b2a-4698-11ea-aeb3-955839e06441) (29 January 2020)\n\n- So this is it, the final chapter, the end of the road. A 47-year political experiment that the British frankly have never been very happy with. **My mother and father signed up to a [common market](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Common_Market \"w:Common Market\"), not to a political union, [flags](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Flag \"Flag\"), [anthems](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Anthem \"Anthem\"), [presidents](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/President \"President\"), and now you even want your own [army](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Military \"Military\").** For me, it has been 27 years of campaigning and over 20 years here in this parliament. I’m not particularly happy with the agreement we’re being asked to vote on tonight. But [Boris](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Boris_Johnson \"Boris Johnson\") has been remarkably bold in the last few months… he’s promised us there will be no level playing field, and on that basis, I wish him every success in the next round of negotiations, I really do.\n  - [Nigel Farage](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nigel_Farage \"Nigel Farage\"), EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, *Breitbart news*\n\n- **What happens at 11pm this Friday the 31st of January 2020 marks the point of no return. Once we’ve left, we’re never coming back and the rest frankly is detail.** We’re going, and we will be gone. And that should be the summit of my own political ambitions. I walked in here, you all thought it was terribly funny but you stopped laughing in 2016. But my view of Europe has changed since I joined. In 2005, I saw the constitution that had been drafted… and saw it rejected by the [French](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/France \"France\") in a referendum. I saw it rejected by the [Dutch](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Netherlands \"Netherlands\") in a referendum. And I saw you, in these institutions, ignore them. \\[You brought it back\\] as the [Lisbon treaty](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Treaty_of_Lisbon \"w:Treaty of Lisbon\"), and boast you could ram it through without there being referendums. Well, the [Irish](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Republic_of_Ireland \"Republic of Ireland\") did have a vote and did say no, and were forced to vote again. You’re very good at making people to vote again, but what we’ve proved is the British are too big to bully, thank goodness. So I became an outright opponent of the whole European project. I want Brexit to start a debate across the whole of Europe. **What do we want from Europe? If we want trade, friendship cooperation, reciprocity, we don’t need a [European Commission](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/European_Commission \"w:European Commission\"), we don’t need a European court. We don’t need these institutions and all of this power.** And I can promise you, both in UKIP and in the Brexit party, we love Europe. We just hate the European Union.\n  - [Nigel Farage](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nigel_Farage \"Nigel Farage\"), EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, *Breitbart news*\n\n- **I hope this begins the end of this project. It is a bad project. It isn’t just undemocratic, it is antidemocratic.** It puts in that front row, it gives people power without unaccountability. People who cannot be held to account by the electorate and that is an unacceptable structure.\n  - [Nigel Farage](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nigel_Farage \"Nigel Farage\"), EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, *Breitbart news*\n\n- **There is a historic battle going on across the west, in Europe, [America](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/United_States \"United States\"), and elsewhere. It is [globalism](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Globalism \"Globalism\") against [populism](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Populism \"Populism\"). And you may loathe populism, but I’ll tell you a funny thing. It is becoming very popular\\!** And it has great benefits. No more financial contributions, no more European Courts of Justice. No more European Common Fisheries Policy, no more being talked down to. No more being bullied, no more [Guy Verhofstadt](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Guy_Verhofstadt \"Guy Verhofstadt\")! What’s not to like. I know you’re going to miss us, I know you want to ban our national flags, but we’re going to wave you goodbye, and we’ll look forward in the future to working with you as a [sovereign](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Sovereignty \"Sovereignty\") nation… \\[Farage is cut off by the chair\\]\n  - [Nigel Farage](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nigel_Farage \"Nigel Farage\"), EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, *Breitbart news*\n- In Britain, [hard-right revisionism](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Far-right_politics \"Far-right politics\") packed itself into the single, self-destructive nuclear option of Brexit. From the 2000s, anti-Europeanism was pursued with skill and determination by the upstart UKIP party (founded 1993) and among Conservatives by the old, unreconciled, Britain-first rump, perhaps a third of the parliamentary party. Shaken by diplomatic failures with his European partners and spooked by the rise of British anti-Europeanism, David Cameron, who was prime minister from 2010 to 2016, called a referendum on British membership of the EU, which he expected to win. On narrowly losing, rather than play for time a shaken Cameron announced within hours that “the instruction” of “the people” should be “delivered.” He resigned, leaving to his successors, [Theresa May](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Theresa_May \"Theresa May\") and [Boris Johnson](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Boris_Johnson \"Boris Johnson\"), an anti-liberal, populist discourse of people against elites, [democracy](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Democracy \"Democracy\") against [parliament](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom \"Parliament of the United Kingdom\"), which May nibbled at and Johnson swallowed whole.\n  - Edmund Fawcett, *Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition* (2020), p. 349\n- The rebellion against membership of the European Union, culminating in the British ‘Brexit’ referendum on 23 June 2016, represents a new highwater mark for anxious and distrustful popular sentiment. A little more than seventy years after the war against [extreme nationalism](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Far-right_politics \"Far-right politics\") appeared won, a small but clear majority of those who chose to vote essentially reaffirmed the near-absolute primacy of [nationalism](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nationalism \"Nationalism\") over [internationalism](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Internationalism \"Internationalism\"), reversing the political direction in which the United Kingdom and the rest of [Europe](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Europe \"Europe\") had appeared to be travelling since 1945. In the [United States](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/United_States \"United States\"), a phrase with dubious historical pedigree, ‘[America First](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/America_First_\\(policy\\) \"America First (policy)\")’, has become current once more. What we are living through is not, of course, precisely a repeat of the [1930s](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Great_Depression \"Great Depression\"). However, the study of the 1930s reminds us of the dangers of crass [inequality](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Social_inequality \"Social inequality\"), of international ‘beggar-my-neighbour’ competition, of the capacity of marginalized [social groups](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Social_group \"Social group\") for extreme violence based on the scapegoating of minorities, and of the many other consequences that flow from irresponsible and often sadly misjudged notions of national self-interest.\n  - Frederick Taylor, *1939: A People's History* (2020)\n\n- **[Scotland](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Scotland \"Scotland\") will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on.**\n  - Scottish First Minister [Nicola Sturgeon](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Nicola_Sturgeon \"Nicola Sturgeon\"), Scottish First Minister, via [Twitter](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Twitter \"Twitter\"), according to [Brexit: New era for UK as it completes separation from European Union](https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-politics-55502781) posted December 31, 2020\n\n- Also, would a referendum settle this issue (Repeal of [Section 377A](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Section_377A_\\(Singapore\\) \"wikipedia:Section 377A (Singapore)\")) once and for all? May I remind Members and the PSP what happened in the UK with Brexit. Both sides campaigned vigorously and bitterly. It created and entrenched polarised identities. \\[...\\] In the process, the credibility of the British government was severely damaged. **Indeed, it has yet to recover.**\n  - [Masagos Zulkifli](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Masagos_Zulkifli \"wikipedia:Masagos Zulkifli\"), Singapore Parl Debates; Vol 95, Sitting No 77; 29 November 2022.\n\n[![Wikipedia](https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/8\/80\/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg\/60px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png)](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/File:Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg \"Wikipedia\")\n\nWikipedia\n\n[![Commons](https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/4\/4a\/Commons-logo.svg\/60px-Commons-logo.svg.png)](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/File:Commons-logo.svg \"Commons\")\n\nCommons","meta_canonical":null}

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Boilerpipe Text	The British people have voted to leave the European Union ~ David Cameron What happens at 11pm this Friday the 31st of January 2020 marks the point of no return. Once we’ve left, we’re never coming back and the rest frankly is detail. ~ Nigel Farage Brexit (a portmanteau of "British" and "exit") is the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union . Following a referendum held on 23 June 2016 in which 51.9 percent of those voting supported leaving the EU, the Government invoked Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union which started a two-year leaving process which was due to conclude with the UK's exit on the 29 March 2019 and then, after an extension, on 31 October 2019. The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. Quotes about Brexit [ edit ] We [UKIP] seek an amicable divorce from the European Union and its replacement with a genuine free-trade agreement, which is what my parents' generation thought we’d signed up for in the first place. Said by Nigel Farage . UKIP news, issue 56 , July 2004. We no longer enjoy the same liberties Americans do. We don't have a constitution . We don't have a First Amendment . What we have, and what the whole of Europe has, is the Lisbon Treaty , a kind of top-down constitution that has been imposed on us against our will. And, unlike the American Constitution which empowers the people, the European constitution dis-empowers the people, and empowers the un-elected bureaucrats and career politicians for whose sole benefit it was created. Pat Condell , "Europe needs a revolution" (25 August 2011), from YouTube Once again, I challenge the Prime Minister to have an open debate with me on why he believes we must stay part of this failing, corrupt EU. The future of our nation is at stake. Mr Cameron , you have my phone number. Nigel Farage "The time will never be right for David Cameron to hold a referendum on the EU" , The Telegraph (5 July 2012) [Brexit] is stupidity for a country with 53 percent of its exports going to the Continent and to the rest of Europe. It’s even so stupid that Britain’s best friends, the U.S. , don’t understand it all. Said by Guy Verhofstadt . Quoted by Politico. Guy Verhofstadt’s 7 best Brexit burns (Quoted in August 2016; Said in January 2013) [An in/out referendum is] going to put Britain through years of uncertainty, and take a huge gamble with our economy . Said by Ed Miliband . David Cameron promises in/out referendum on EU BBC News (23 January 2013) Years of uncertainty caused by a future EU referendum would hit jobs and growth and this is not in the national interest Said by Nick Clegg . David Cameron promises in/out referendum on EU BBC News (23 January 2013) I am ready to campaign with all my heart and soul to keep Britain inside a reformed European Union Said by David Cameron . Quoted by the BBC. Donald Tusk: Deal on UK's EU renegotiation 'very tough' (12 November 2015) Let me be clear. Leaving Europe would threaten our economic and our national security . Said by David Cameron Quoted by the Independent. David Cameron's EU referendum date announcement: Full text of speech (20 February 2016) [Britain would be] freer, fairer and better off outside the EU Said by Michael Gove . Quoted by the BBC. UK 'better off' out of EU - Michael Gove (20 February 2016) The EU offers our small businesses and tourism sector huge opportunities, I can't understand why anyone would want to shut those opportunities down Said by Tim Farron . 'Huge' business and tourism opportunities from EU - Farron BBC News (25 February 2016) My judgment is that remaining a member of the European Union means we will be more secure from crime and terrorism . Said by Theresa May . EU migration: UK to face 'free-for-all', Michael Gove warns , BBC News , (25 April 2016) The Leavers don't seem to have much clue about what is to happen afterwards. Curious, considering so many of them have spent their adult lives agitating for this moment. Their approach appears to be a version of Napoleon 's battle strategy: 'On se dégage, et puis on voit.' What exactly is Out supposed to entail? How do they picture Britain's relationship with the EU, and with the rest of the world, after they’ve secured a vote for Exit on 23 June? Ferdinand Mount "Nigels against the World" , London Review of Books 38:10 (19 May 2016) The Labour Party is about as united as it possibly can be in asking people to Remain Said by Tom Watson . EU referendum: Labour urges its voters not to back Brexit BBC News (10 June 2016) As a historian I fear Brexit could be the beginning of the destruction of not only the EU but also Western political civilisation in its entirety Said by Donald Tusk . Donald Tusk: Brexit could destroy Western political civilisation BBC News (13 June 2016) Every family knows that a divorce is traumatic for everyone. Everyone in the EU, but especially the Brits themselves, would lose out economically [if Britain left the EU]. Said by Donald Tusk . Donald Tusk: Brexit could destroy Western political civilisation BBC News (13 June 2016) The British people have voted to leave the European Union and their will must be respected Said by David Cameron . Brexit: David Cameron to quit after UK votes to leave EU BBC News (24 June 2016) Brexit means Brexit, and we're going to make a success of it. Said by Theresa May . Theresa May Says UK Will Make Success Of Brexit When She Is PM , Sky News - Youtube , 11 July 2016. (On 24 July 2019 Theresa May stood down as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom without Brexit having been achieved.) The referendum is not binding. Written by Ken Clarke in a letter to constiuents after the 2016 EU referendum and quoted in the Guardian . Asthana, Anushka and Mason, Rowena (13 September 2016) Ken Clarke tells constituents: 'EU referendum is not binding' in the Guardian. Retrieved 8 July 2019. Yes, on November 8, you Joe Blow, Steve Blow, Bob Blow, Billy Blow, all the Blows get to go and blow up the whole goddamn system because it's your right. Trump's election is going to be the biggest "fuck you" ever recorded in human history and it will feel good — for a day. Maybe a week. Possibly a month. And then, like the Brits, who wanted to send a message, so they voted to leave Europe, only to find out that if you vote to leave Europe, you actually have to leave Europe. And now they regret it. All the Ohioans , Pennsylvanians , Michiganders , and Wisconsinites of Middle England, right, they all voted to leave and now they regret it. And over 4 million of them signed a petition to have a do-over, they want another election, but it's not going to happen. Because you used the ballot as an anger management tool. And now you're fucked. And the rest of Europe. They're like, "Bye Felicia!" So when the rightfully angry people of Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin find out after a few months in office that President Trump wasn't going to do a damn thing for them, it will be too late to do anything about it. Michael Moore , Michael Moore in TrumpLand (October 7, 2016) Being a member of EU comes with rights and benefits. Third countries (non members as the UK will be after Brexit) can never have the same rights and benefits since they are not subject to the same obligations. The single market and its four freedoms (which includes freedom of movement) are indivisible. Cherry picking is not an option. Said by Michel Barnier . Brexit: EU negotiator says 'time's short' for reaching deal BBC News (6 December 2016) I wish the result had gone the other way. I campaigned passionately for that. But as democrats our party has to accept that result and it follows that the prime minister should not be blocked from starting the Article 50 negotiations. Said by Keir Starmer . Brexit decision 'difficult' for Labour, Keir Starmer says BBC News (31 January 2017) Any [Brexit] deal is bound to be full of compromises which one group or another in Parliament finds difficult to stomach. Said by William Hague . Downing Street rejects Hague call for snap election BBC News (7 March 2017) Our laws will then be made in London , Edinburgh , Cardiff and Belfast and interpreted not by judges in Luxembourg but by judges across the United Kingdom Said by David Davis . Brexit: UK sets out plans to replace all EU laws BBC News (30 March 2017) Your Prime Minister, your MP, Theresa May, called this election about Brexit. Have we heard from her what she plans to do about Brexit? No. This is mad. On Thursday, you are going to be faced with Prime Minister May, or Prime Minister Corbyn , against twenty-seven prime ministers from the European Union. It will be a shitshow. Said by Lord Buckethead . Speaking a local hustings in Maidenhead (5 June 2017) There are two kinds of European nations. There are small nations and there are countries that have not yet realized they are small nations. Said by Kristian Jensen (13 June 2017), as cited in "Brits angry at Dane's 'small nation' jibe" , Politico (13 June 2017). Speaking at the Road To Brexit conference in Copenhagen, Jensen was Denmark 's Finance Minister at the time. Dominic Schroeder , then British ambassador to Denmark, said he saw no sign of his country being a "of a diminished or diminishing power". No deal is better than a bad deal Said by Theresa May . Boris Johnson: EU can 'go whistle' over Brexit divorce bill , BBC News , 11 July 2017 Since the Brexit negotiations begun there's a third emotion I've been feeling - embarrassment. Embarrassment at our country's leaders. Embarrassment for Great Britain . Said by Vince Cable . Anti-Brexit marchers rally in Parliament Square BBC News (9 September 2017) As Europe struggled to recover from recession , in 2015 the British prime minister David Cameron tossed Brussels a grenade. He said he would hold a referendum on the UK’s continued EU membership the following year. The torch of British Euroscepticism had passed from left to right . It was now Conservatives rather than Labour who were most anti-European. Cameron’s attempts to appease his ‘leave’ voters by negotiating reforms to the EU were dismissed by the ever cautious Merkel and, in June 2016, to Cameron’s surprise and dismay, the British electorate voted narrowly to leave the EU. The vote was taken as binding by the government . The date decided by Parliament for departure was March 2019. Simon Jenkins, A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin (2018) Britain’s departure could not lightly be dismissed. Its economy was second only to Germany’s in size, and contributed twenty per cent of the EU budget. The UK might long have been half-hearted in its commitment to European union, but now it was not alone. A Pew survey in mid-2016 was one of many showing disapproval of the EU as high in Germany and the Netherlands as in Britain, and higher in France and Spain . Few governments dared imitate Britain and hold an open vote on continued membership. Union might be popular but the EU was not. Simon Jenkins, A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin (2018) Brexit has been pushed by certain people who predicted easy solutions. Brexit has shown us one thing - and I fully respect British sovereignty in saying this - it has demonstrated that those who said you can easily do without Europe, that it will all go very well, that it is easy and there will be lots of money, are liars. This is all the more true because they left the next day, so they didn't have to manage it. Said by Emmanuel Macron . Donald Tusk: Theresa May's Brexit trade plan won't work BBC News (20 September 2018) Crashing out of Europe with no deal risks being a national disaster. Said by Jeremy Corbyn . Brexit: Jeremy Corbyn meets Michel Barnier for 'useful' talks , BBC News , 27 September 2018 Brexit was not our choice, it is the choice of the UK. Our proposal tries to help the UK in managing the negative fallout of Brexit in Northern Ireland in a way that respects the territorial integrity of the UK. Said by Michel Barnier . Brexit negotiators working 'day and night' for agreement BBC News (10 October 2018) For me, getting a good Brexit is about securing the freedoms and opportunities to plough our own furrow whilst enjoying a relationship of co-operation and trade with mainland Europe. Said by Derek Thomas . Quoted in the Falmouth Packet. Brexit conversation in Helston with MP Derek Thomas (10 November 2018) Therefore now in the national interest we have got to come together and secure a compromise. If we can't do that, well yes, we have to go back to the people. Said by John McDonnell . Brexit: Labour plan can get majority, says John McDonnell BBC News (8 February 2019) Britain is basically Pompeii if Pompeii had voted for the volcano . Said by John Oliver about Brexit " Brexit III " ( ff. 0:14:30), (17 February 2019). You cannot drag out Brexit for a decade. Said by Heiko Maas . Brexit: Tusk says UK MEPs could sit for 'months or longer' BBC News (16 April 2019) We've got to a stage where we feel that any deal is so controversial and may well be so far from what people voted for when they voted to leave, that we think that it is probably appropriate… that we say to the people, 'Is this what you wanted?' We just want to check. Because if it isn't, then let's stay. Said by Emily Thornberry . 2019 European elections: Labour MPs push for referendum pledge BBC News (26 April 2019) I want us to leave the European Union, I think we should have left on the 29th of March but we've got these elections and I think it's really important that there's a good vote for ... people who do want to leave. Said by Jacob Rees-Mogg . Quoted by the BBC. European elections 2019: Rees-Mogg backs Conservative candidate (9 May 2019) It is my honestly held view that Parliament will not be able to get a deal on Brexit and therefore the only choice, reluctantly, is to ask the people to take another look at it. Said by Tom Watson . Brexit: 'High price to pay' for Labour stance, says Watson BBC News (17 June 2019) If the UK doesn’t pay what is due, the EU will not negotiate a trade deal. Said by Guy Verhofstadt . Quoted by the Independent Boris Johnson news – live: EU 'will block trade deal' if UK refuses to pay £39bn divorce bill, as No 10 warns MPs they can't stop no-deal (26 August 2019) I'm against any form of Brexit, I want to stop Brexit, but in particular a no-deal Brexit I think will be catastrophic for our economy, society, for a long time to come Said by Nicola Sturgeon . Nicola Sturgeon: Stopping no-deal Brexit is priority BBC News (2 September 2019) The more divergence there is, the more distant the partnership has to be. Without an extension of the transition period beyond 2020, you cannot expect to agree on every single aspect of our new partnership. Without the freedom of movement of people, you cannot have the free movement of capital , goods and services . Without a level playing field on environment , labour , taxation and state aid, you cannot have highest-quality access to the world’s largest single market. Said by Ursula von der Leyen . Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen have 'positive' meeting The Guardian (8 January 2019) There is no need to give in on fish to complete a Free Trade Agreement. The UK must be firm - no more concessions. An FTA is in the EU's interest so dig in. From a series of tweets by John Redwood , a pro-Brexit MP. "BBC under fire as reporter brands Brexit fishing expectations 'hopelessly naive'" , Express (10 January 2020) Thank you, goodbye, and good riddance . Croatian representative to the EU Irena Andrassy to UK counterpart Tim Barrow (reportedly mistaking “good riddance” as being like “good luck”) — Financial Times (29 January 2020) So this is it, the final chapter, the end of the road. A 47-year political experiment that the British frankly have never been very happy with. My mother and father signed up to a common market , not to a political union, flags , anthems , presidents , and now you even want your own army . For me, it has been 27 years of campaigning and over 20 years here in this parliament. I’m not particularly happy with the agreement we’re being asked to vote on tonight. But Boris has been remarkably bold in the last few months… he’s promised us there will be no level playing field, and on that basis, I wish him every success in the next round of negotiations, I really do. Nigel Farage , EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, Breitbart news What happens at 11pm this Friday the 31st of January 2020 marks the point of no return. Once we’ve left, we’re never coming back and the rest frankly is detail. We’re going, and we will be gone. And that should be the summit of my own political ambitions. I walked in here, you all thought it was terribly funny but you stopped laughing in 2016. But my view of Europe has changed since I joined. In 2005, I saw the constitution that had been drafted… and saw it rejected by the French in a referendum. I saw it rejected by the Dutch in a referendum. And I saw you, in these institutions, ignore them. [You brought it back] as the Lisbon treaty , and boast you could ram it through without there being referendums. Well, the Irish did have a vote and did say no, and were forced to vote again. You’re very good at making people to vote again, but what we’ve proved is the British are too big to bully, thank goodness. So I became an outright opponent of the whole European project. I want Brexit to start a debate across the whole of Europe. What do we want from Europe? If we want trade, friendship cooperation, reciprocity, we don’t need a European Commission , we don’t need a European court. We don’t need these institutions and all of this power. And I can promise you, both in UKIP and in the Brexit party, we love Europe. We just hate the European Union. Nigel Farage , EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, Breitbart news I hope this begins the end of this project. It is a bad project. It isn’t just undemocratic, it is antidemocratic. It puts in that front row, it gives people power without unaccountability. People who cannot be held to account by the electorate and that is an unacceptable structure. Nigel Farage , EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, Breitbart news There is a historic battle going on across the west, in Europe, America , and elsewhere. It is globalism against populism . And you may loathe populism, but I’ll tell you a funny thing. It is becoming very popular! And it has great benefits. No more financial contributions, no more European Courts of Justice. No more European Common Fisheries Policy, no more being talked down to. No more being bullied, no more Guy Verhofstadt ! What’s not to like. I know you’re going to miss us, I know you want to ban our national flags, but we’re going to wave you goodbye, and we’ll look forward in the future to working with you as a sovereign nation… [Farage is cut off by the chair] Nigel Farage , EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, Breitbart news In Britain, hard-right revisionism packed itself into the single, self-destructive nuclear option of Brexit. From the 2000s, anti-Europeanism was pursued with skill and determination by the upstart UKIP party (founded 1993) and among Conservatives by the old, unreconciled, Britain-first rump, perhaps a third of the parliamentary party. Shaken by diplomatic failures with his European partners and spooked by the rise of British anti-Europeanism, David Cameron, who was prime minister from 2010 to 2016, called a referendum on British membership of the EU, which he expected to win. On narrowly losing, rather than play for time a shaken Cameron announced within hours that “the instruction” of “the people” should be “delivered.” He resigned, leaving to his successors, Theresa May and Boris Johnson , an anti-liberal, populist discourse of people against elites, democracy against parliament , which May nibbled at and Johnson swallowed whole. Edmund Fawcett, Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition (2020), p. 349 The rebellion against membership of the European Union, culminating in the British ‘Brexit’ referendum on 23 June 2016, represents a new highwater mark for anxious and distrustful popular sentiment. A little more than seventy years after the war against extreme nationalism appeared won, a small but clear majority of those who chose to vote essentially reaffirmed the near-absolute primacy of nationalism over internationalism , reversing the political direction in which the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe had appeared to be travelling since 1945. In the United States , a phrase with dubious historical pedigree, ‘ America First ’, has become current once more. What we are living through is not, of course, precisely a repeat of the 1930s . However, the study of the 1930s reminds us of the dangers of crass inequality , of international ‘beggar-my-neighbour’ competition, of the capacity of marginalized social groups for extreme violence based on the scapegoating of minorities, and of the many other consequences that flow from irresponsible and often sadly misjudged notions of national self-interest. Frederick Taylor, 1939: A People's History (2020) Scotland will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon , Scottish First Minister, via Twitter , according to Brexit: New era for UK as it completes separation from European Union posted December 31, 2020 Also, would a referendum settle this issue (Repeal of Section 377A ) once and for all? May I remind Members and the PSP what happened in the UK with Brexit. Both sides campaigned vigorously and bitterly. It created and entrenched polarised identities. [...] In the process, the credibility of the British government was severely damaged. Indeed, it has yet to recover. Masagos Zulkifli , Singapore Parl Debates; Vol 95, Sitting No 77; 29 November 2022. Wikipedia Commons
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[Beginning](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit) - [1 Quotes about Brexit](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit#Quotes_about_Brexit) Toggle Quotes about Brexit subsection - [1\.1 Pre-referendum](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit#Pre-referendum) - [1\.1.1 2004](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit#2004) - [1\.1.2 2011](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit#2011) - [1\.1.3 2012](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit#2012) - [1\.1.4 2013](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit#2013) - [1\.1.5 2015](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit#2015) - [1\.1.6 2016](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit#2016) - [1\.2 Post-referendum](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit#Post-referendum) - [1\.2.1 2016](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit#2016_2) - [1\.2.2 2017](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit#2017) - [1\.2.3 2018](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit#2018) - [1\.2.4 2019](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit#2019) - [1\.2.5 2020](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit#2020) - [1\.2.6 2022](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brexit#2022) - 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Once we’ve left, we’re never coming back and the rest frankly is detail. ~ [Nigel Farage](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage "Nigel Farage") [Brexit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brexit "w:Brexit") (a portmanteau of "British" and "exit") is the withdrawal of the [United Kingdom](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/United_Kingdom "United Kingdom") from the [European Union](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/European_Union "European Union"). Following a [referendum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_EU_referendum "w:2016 EU referendum") held on 23 June 2016 in which 51.9 percent of those voting supported leaving the EU, the Government [invoked Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_invocation_of_Article_50_of_the_Treaty_on_European_Union "w:United Kingdom invocation of Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union") which started a two-year leaving process which was due to conclude with the UK's exit on the 29 March 2019 and then, after an extension, on 31 October 2019. The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. ## Quotes about Brexit \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: Quotes about Brexit")\] ### Pre-referendum \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=2 "Edit section: Pre-referendum")\] #### 2004 \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=3 "Edit section: 2004")\] - We [\[UKIP\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKIP "w:UKIP") seek an amicable divorce from the [European Union](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union "w:European Union") and its replacement with a genuine [free-trade](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Free_trade "Free trade") agreement, which is what my parents' generation thought we’d signed up for in the first place. - Said by [Nigel Farage](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage "Nigel Farage"). [UKIP news, issue 56](http://www.ukip.org/media/pdf/ukipnewsissue56.pdf), July 2004. #### 2011 \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=4 "Edit section: 2011")\] - We no longer enjoy the same [liberties](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Liberty "Liberty") Americans do. We don't have a [constitution](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Constitutions "Constitutions"). We don't have a [First Amendment](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution "First Amendment to the United States Constitution"). What we have, and what the whole of [Europe](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Europe "Europe") has, is the [Lisbon Treaty](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lisbon_Treaty "Lisbon Treaty"), a kind of top-down [constitution](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Constitutions "Constitutions") that has been imposed on us against our will. And, unlike the [American Constitution](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution "United States Constitution") which empowers the people, the European constitution dis-empowers the people, and empowers the un-elected [bureaucrats](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bureaucracy "Bureaucracy") and career [politicians](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Politicians "Politicians") for whose sole benefit it was created. - [Pat Condell](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pat_Condell "Pat Condell"), ["Europe needs a revolution"](http://listenonrepeat.com/watch?v=s3u9LB32YYM) (25 August 2011), from [YouTube](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube "w:YouTube") #### 2012 \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=5 "Edit section: 2012")\] - Once again, I challenge the Prime Minister to have an open debate with me on why he believes we must stay part of this failing, corrupt EU. The future of our nation is at stake. [Mr Cameron](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Cameron "David Cameron"), you have my phone number. - [Nigel Farage](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage "Nigel Farage") ["The time will never be right for David Cameron to hold a referendum on the EU"](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/9378567/The-time-will-never-be-right-for-David-Cameron-to-hold-a-referendum-on-the-EU.html), The Telegraph (5 July 2012) #### 2013 \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=6 "Edit section: 2013")\] - \[Brexit\] is stupidity for a country with 53 percent of its exports going to [the Continent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Europe "w:Continental Europe") and to the rest of Europe. It’s even so stupid that Britain’s best friends, the [U.S.](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/United_States "United States"), don’t understand it all. - Said by [Guy Verhofstadt](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guy_Verhofstadt "Guy Verhofstadt"). Quoted by Politico. [Guy Verhofstadt’s 7 best Brexit burns](https://www.politico.eu/article/european-parliament-negotiator-guy-verhofstadts-7-best-brexit-burns/) (Quoted in August 2016; Said in January 2013) - \[An in/out referendum is\] going to put Britain through years of uncertainty, and take a huge gamble with [our economy](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_Kingdom "Economy of the United Kingdom"). - Said by [Ed Miliband](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ed_Miliband "Ed Miliband"). [David Cameron promises in/out referendum on EU](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21148282) BBC News (23 January 2013) - Years of uncertainty caused by a future EU referendum would hit [jobs](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jobs "Jobs") and [growth](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Economic_growth "Economic growth") and this is not in the national interest - Said by [Nick Clegg](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nick_Clegg "Nick Clegg"). [David Cameron promises in/out referendum on EU](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21148282) BBC News (23 January 2013) #### 2015 \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=7 "Edit section: 2015")\] - I am ready to campaign with all my heart and soul to keep Britain inside a reformed European Union - Said by [David Cameron](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Cameron "David Cameron"). Quoted by the BBC. [Donald Tusk: Deal on UK's EU renegotiation 'very tough'](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34803222) (12 November 2015) #### 2016 \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=8 "Edit section: 2016")\] - Let me be clear. Leaving Europe would threaten our economic and our [national security](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/National_security "National security"). - Said by [David Cameron](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Cameron "David Cameron") Quoted by the Independent. [David Cameron's EU referendum date announcement: Full text of speech](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-camerons-eu-referendum-date-announcement-full-text-of-speech-a6886191.html) (20 February 2016) - \[Britain would be\] freer, fairer and better off outside the EU - Said by [Michael Gove](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Gove "Michael Gove"). Quoted by the BBC. [UK 'better off' out of EU - Michael Gove](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35617843) (20 February 2016) - The EU offers our small [businesses](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Business "Business") and [tourism](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tourism "Tourism") sector huge opportunities, I can't understand why anyone would want to shut those opportunities down - Said by [Tim Farron](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tim_Farron "Tim Farron"). ['Huge' business and tourism opportunities from EU - Farron](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-35653200) BBC News (25 February 2016) - My judgment is that remaining a member of the European Union means we will be more secure from [crime](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Crime "Crime") and [terrorism](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Terrorism "Terrorism"). - Said by [Theresa May](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theresa_May "Theresa May"). [EU migration: UK to face 'free-for-all', Michael Gove warns](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36126993), BBC News, (25 April 2016) - The Leavers don't seem to have much clue about what is to happen afterwards. Curious, considering so many of them have spent their adult lives agitating for this moment. Their approach appears to be a version of [Napoleon](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Napoleon "Napoleon")'s battle strategy: 'On se dégage, et puis on voit.' What exactly is Out supposed to entail? How do they picture Britain's relationship with the EU, and with the rest of the world, after they’ve secured a vote for Exit on 23 June? - [Ferdinand Mount](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Mount "Ferdinand Mount") ["Nigels against the World"](http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n10/ferdinand-mount/nigels-against-the-world), London Review of Books 38:10 (19 May 2016) - The [Labour Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party "w:Labour Party") is about as united as it possibly can be in asking people to Remain - Said by [Tom Watson](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Watson_\(Labour_politician\) "Tom Watson (Labour politician)"). [EU referendum: Labour urges its voters not to back Brexit](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36496288) BBC News (10 June 2016) - As a [historian](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Historian "Historian") I fear Brexit could be the beginning of the destruction of not only the EU but also Western political civilisation in its entirety - Said by [Donald Tusk](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Tusk "Donald Tusk"). [Donald Tusk: Brexit could destroy Western political civilisation](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36515680) BBC News (13 June 2016) - Every family knows that a [divorce](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Divorce "Divorce") is traumatic for everyone. Everyone in the EU, but especially the Brits themselves, would lose out economically \[if Britain left the EU\]. - Said by [Donald Tusk](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Tusk "Donald Tusk"). [Donald Tusk: Brexit could destroy Western political civilisation](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36515680) BBC News (13 June 2016) ### Post-referendum \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=9 "Edit section: Post-referendum")\] #### 2016 \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=10 "Edit section: 2016")\] - The British people have voted to leave the European Union and their will must be respected - Said by [David Cameron](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Cameron "David Cameron"). [Brexit: David Cameron to quit after UK votes to leave EU](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36615028) BBC News (24 June 2016) - Brexit means Brexit, and we're going to make a success of it. - Said by [Theresa May](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theresa_May "Theresa May"). [Theresa May Says UK Will Make Success Of Brexit When She Is PM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV6n6zNVw_I), Sky News - Youtube, 11 July 2016. (On 24 July 2019 Theresa May stood down as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom without Brexit having been achieved.) - The referendum is not binding. - Written by [Ken Clarke](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ken_Clarke "Ken Clarke") in a letter to constiuents after the [2016 EU referendum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_Kingdom_European_Union_membership_referendum "w:2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum") and quoted in [the Guardian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian "w:The Guardian"). Asthana, Anushka and Mason, Rowena (13 September 2016) [Ken Clarke tells constituents: 'EU referendum is not binding'](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/13/ken-clarke-tory-constituent-brexit-eu-referendum-not-binding) in the Guardian. Retrieved 8 July 2019. - Yes, on November 8, you Joe Blow, Steve Blow, Bob Blow, Billy Blow, all the Blows get to go and blow up the whole goddamn system because it's your right. [Trump's election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election "w:2016 United States presidential election") is going to be the biggest "fuck you" ever recorded in human history and it will feel good — for a day. Maybe a week. Possibly a month. And then, like the Brits, who wanted to send a message, so they voted to leave Europe, only to find out that if you vote to leave Europe, you actually have to leave Europe. And now they regret it. All the [Ohioans](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ohio "Ohio"), [Pennsylvanians](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pennsylvania "Pennsylvania"), [Michiganders](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michigan "Michigan"), and [Wisconsinites](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wisconsin "Wisconsin") of Middle England, right, they all voted to leave and now they regret it. And over 4 million of them signed a petition to have a do-over, they want another election, but it's not going to happen. Because you used the ballot as an anger management tool. And now you're fucked. And the rest of Europe. They're like, "Bye Felicia!" So when the rightfully angry people of Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin find out after a few months in office that [President Trump](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Trump "Donald Trump") wasn't going to do a damn thing for them, it will be too late to do anything about it. - [Michael Moore](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Moore "Michael Moore"), Michael Moore in TrumpLand (October 7, 2016) - Being a member of EU comes with rights and benefits. Third countries (non members as the UK will be after Brexit) can never have the same rights and benefits since they are not subject to the same obligations. The single market and its four [freedoms](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Freedom "Freedom") (which includes freedom of movement) are indivisible. Cherry picking is not an option. - Said by [Michel Barnier](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michel_Barnier "Michel Barnier"). [Brexit: EU negotiator says 'time's short' for reaching deal](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38221140) BBC News (6 December 2016) #### 2017 \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=11 "Edit section: 2017")\] - I wish the result had gone the other way. I campaigned passionately for that. But as [democrats](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Democracy "Democracy") our party has to accept that result and it follows that the [prime minister](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom "Prime Minister of the United Kingdom") should not be blocked from starting the Article 50 negotiations. - Said by [Keir Starmer](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Keir_Starmer "Keir Starmer"). [Brexit decision 'difficult' for Labour, Keir Starmer says](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38799686) BBC News (31 January 2017) - Any \[Brexit\] deal is bound to be full of compromises which one group or another in [Parliament](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom "Parliament of the United Kingdom") finds difficult to stomach. - Said by [William Hague](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Hague "William Hague"). [Downing Street rejects Hague call for snap election](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39188042) BBC News (7 March 2017) - Our laws will then be made in [London](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/London "London"), [Edinburgh](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edinburgh "Edinburgh"), [Cardiff](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cardiff "Cardiff") and [Belfast](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Belfast "Belfast") and interpreted not by [judges](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Judges "Judges") in [Luxembourg](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Luxembourg "Luxembourg") but by judges across the United Kingdom - Said by [David Davis](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Davis "David Davis"). [Brexit: UK sets out plans to replace all EU laws](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39439554) BBC News (30 March 2017) - Your Prime Minister, your MP, Theresa May, called this election about Brexit. Have we heard from her what she plans to do about Brexit? No. This is mad. On Thursday, you are going to be faced with Prime Minister May, or [Prime Minister Corbyn](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeremy_Corbyn "Jeremy Corbyn"), against twenty-seven [prime ministers](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Prime_Minister "Prime Minister") from the European Union. It will be a shitshow. - Said by [Lord Buckethead](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_Buckethead "Lord Buckethead"). [Speaking a local hustings in Maidenhead](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJzW_gFoXR0) (5 June 2017) - There are two kinds of European nations. There are small nations and there are countries that have not yet realized they are small nations. - Said by [Kristian Jensen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristian_Jensen "w:Kristian Jensen") (13 June 2017), as cited in ["Brits angry at Dane's 'small nation' jibe"](https://www.politico.eu/article/kristian-jensen-brits-angry-at-danes-small-nation-jibe/), Politico (13 June 2017). - Speaking at the Road To Brexit conference in Copenhagen, Jensen was [Denmark](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Denmark "Denmark")'s Finance Minister at the time. [Dominic Schroeder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Schroeder "w:Dominic Schroeder"), then British ambassador to Denmark, said he saw no sign of his country being a "of a diminished or diminishing power". - No deal is better than a bad deal - Said by [Theresa May](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theresa_May "Theresa May"). [Boris Johnson: EU can 'go whistle' over Brexit divorce bill](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40571123), BBC News, 11 July 2017 - Since the Brexit negotiations begun there's a third emotion I've been feeling - embarrassment. Embarrassment at our country's leaders. Embarrassment for [Great Britain](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Great_Britain "Great Britain"). - Said by [Vince Cable](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vince_Cable "Vince Cable"). [Anti-Brexit marchers rally in Parliament Square](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41212505) BBC News (9 September 2017) #### 2018 \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=12 "Edit section: 2018")\] - As Europe struggled to recover from [recession](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Great_Recession "Great Recession"), in 2015 the British prime minister [David Cameron](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Cameron "David Cameron") tossed [Brussels](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brussels "Brussels") a grenade. He said he would hold a referendum on the UK’s continued EU membership the following year. The torch of [British Euroscepticism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euroscepticism_in_the_United_Kingdom "w:Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom") had passed from [left](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics "Left-wing politics") to [right](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Right-wing_politics "Right-wing politics"). It was now [Conservatives](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_\(UK\) "Conservative Party (UK)") rather than [Labour](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_\(United_Kingdom\) "w:Labour Party (United Kingdom)") who were most anti-European. Cameron’s attempts to appease his ‘leave’ voters by negotiating reforms to the EU were dismissed by the ever cautious [Merkel](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel "Angela Merkel") and, in June 2016, to Cameron’s surprise and dismay, the British electorate voted narrowly to leave the EU. The vote was taken as binding by the [government](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Government_of_the_United_Kingdom "Government of the United Kingdom"). The date decided by Parliament for departure was March 2019. - Simon Jenkins, A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin (2018) - Britain’s departure could not lightly be dismissed. Its economy was second only to [Germany’s](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Economy_of_Germany "Economy of Germany") in size, and contributed twenty per cent of the EU budget. The UK might long have been half-hearted in its commitment to European union, but now it was not alone. A Pew survey in mid-2016 was one of many showing disapproval of the EU as high in [Germany](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Germany "Germany") and the [Netherlands](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Netherlands "Netherlands") as in Britain, and higher in [France](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/France "France") and [Spain](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Spain "Spain"). Few governments dared imitate Britain and hold an open vote on continued membership. Union might be popular but the EU was not. - Simon Jenkins, A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin (2018) - Brexit has been pushed by certain people who predicted easy solutions. Brexit has shown us one thing - and I fully respect British sovereignty in saying this - it has demonstrated that those who said you can easily do without Europe, that it will all go very well, that it is easy and there will be lots of money, are liars. This is all the more true because they left the next day, so they didn't have to manage it. - Said by [Emmanuel Macron](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Macron "Emmanuel Macron"). [Donald Tusk: Theresa May's Brexit trade plan won't work](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45586010) BBC News (20 September 2018) - Crashing out of Europe with no deal risks being a national disaster. - Said by [Jeremy Corbyn](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeremy_Corbyn "Jeremy Corbyn"). [Brexit: Jeremy Corbyn meets Michel Barnier for 'useful' talks](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45660640), BBC News, 27 September 2018 - Brexit was not our choice, it is the choice of the UK. Our proposal tries to help the UK in managing the negative fallout of Brexit in [Northern Ireland](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Northern_Ireland "Northern Ireland") in a way that respects the territorial integrity of the UK. - Said by [Michel Barnier](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michel_Barnier "Michel Barnier"). [Brexit negotiators working 'day and night' for agreement](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45816306) BBC News (10 October 2018) - For me, getting a good Brexit is about securing the freedoms and opportunities to plough our own furrow whilst enjoying a relationship of co-operation and trade with mainland Europe. - Said by [Derek Thomas](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Derek_Thomas "Derek Thomas"). Quoted in the Falmouth Packet. [Brexit conversation in Helston with MP Derek Thomas](https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/17215013.brexit-conversation-in-helston-with-mp-derek-thomas/) (10 November 2018) #### 2019 \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=13 "Edit section: 2019")\] - Therefore now in the national interest we have got to come together and secure a compromise. If we can't do that, well yes, we have to go back to the people. - Said by [John McDonnell](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_McDonnell "John McDonnell"). [Brexit: Labour plan can get majority, says John McDonnell](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47170369) BBC News (8 February 2019) - Britain is basically [Pompeii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii "w:Pompeii") if Pompeii had voted for [the volcano](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruption_of_Mount_Vesuvius_in_79 "w:Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79"). - Said by [John Oliver](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Oliver "John Oliver") about Brexit "[Brexit III](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaBQfSAVt0s&t=870)" (ff. 0:14:30), (17 February 2019). - You cannot drag out Brexit for a decade. - Said by [Heiko Maas](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heiko_Maas "Heiko Maas"). [Brexit: Tusk says UK MEPs could sit for 'months or longer'](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47946256) BBC News (16 April 2019) - We've got to a stage where we feel that any deal is so controversial and may well be so far from what people voted for when they voted to leave, that we think that it is probably appropriate… that we say to the people, 'Is this what you wanted?' We just want to check. Because if it isn't, then let's stay. - Said by [Emily Thornberry](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emily_Thornberry "Emily Thornberry"). [2019 European elections: Labour MPs push for referendum pledge](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48068207) BBC News (26 April 2019) - I want us to leave the European Union, I think we should have left on the 29th of March but we've got these elections and I think it's really important that there's a good vote for ... people who do want to leave. - Said by [Jacob Rees-Mogg](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jacob_Rees-Mogg "Jacob Rees-Mogg"). Quoted by the BBC. [European elections 2019: Rees-Mogg backs Conservative candidate](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-48213519) (9 May 2019) - It is my honestly held view that Parliament will not be able to get a deal on Brexit and therefore the only choice, reluctantly, is to ask the people to take another look at it. - Said by [Tom Watson](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Watson_\(Labour_politician\) "Tom Watson (Labour politician)"). [Brexit: 'High price to pay' for Labour stance, says Watson](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48658683) BBC News (17 June 2019) - If the UK doesn’t pay what is due, the EU will not negotiate a trade deal. - Said by [Guy Verhofstadt](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guy_Verhofstadt "Guy Verhofstadt"). Quoted by the Independent [Boris Johnson news – live: EU 'will block trade deal' if UK refuses to pay £39bn divorce bill, as No 10 warns MPs they can't stop no-deal](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-news-live-brexit-speech-g7-press-conference-latest-a9078836.html) (26 August 2019) - I'm against any form of Brexit, I want to stop Brexit, but in particular a no-deal Brexit I think will be catastrophic for our economy, society, for a long time to come - Said by [Nicola Sturgeon](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicola_Sturgeon "Nicola Sturgeon"). [Nicola Sturgeon: Stopping no-deal Brexit is priority](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-49550873) BBC News (2 September 2019) #### 2020 \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=14 "Edit section: 2020")\] - The more divergence there is, the more distant the partnership has to be. Without an extension of the transition period beyond 2020, you cannot expect to agree on every single aspect of our new partnership. Without the freedom of movement of people, you cannot have the free movement of [capital](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Capital "Capital"), [goods](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Commodity "Commodity") and [services](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Service "Service"). Without a level playing field on [environment](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Environment "Environment"), [labour](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Labour "Labour"), [taxation](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Taxation "Taxation") and state aid, you cannot have highest-quality access to the world’s largest single market. - Said by [Ursula von der Leyen](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_von_der_Leyen "Ursula von der Leyen"). [Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen have 'positive' meeting](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/08/ursula-von-der-leyen-uk-deadline-makes-full-brexit-deal-impossible) The Guardian (8 January 2019) - There is no need to give in on fish to complete a Free Trade Agreement. The UK must be firm - no more concessions. An FTA is in the EU's interest so dig in. - From a series of tweets by [John Redwood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Redwood "w:John Redwood"), a pro-Brexit MP. ["BBC under fire as reporter brands Brexit fishing expectations 'hopelessly naive'"](https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1226562/BBC-news-Brexit-fisheries-UK-EU-deal-John-Redwood-Boris-Johnson-France-latest), Express (10 January 2020) - Thank you, goodbye, and good riddance. - Croatian representative to the EU Irena Andrassy to UK counterpart [Tim Barrow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Barrow "w:Tim Barrow") (reportedly mistaking “good riddance” as being like “good luck”) — [Financial Times](https://www.ft.com/content/03d18b2a-4698-11ea-aeb3-955839e06441) (29 January 2020) - So this is it, the final chapter, the end of the road. A 47-year political experiment that the British frankly have never been very happy with. My mother and father signed up to a [common market](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Market "w:Common Market"), not to a political union, [flags](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Flag "Flag"), [anthems](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anthem "Anthem"), [presidents](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/President "President"), and now you even want your own [army](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Military "Military"). For me, it has been 27 years of campaigning and over 20 years here in this parliament. I’m not particularly happy with the agreement we’re being asked to vote on tonight. But [Boris](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson "Boris Johnson") has been remarkably bold in the last few months… he’s promised us there will be no level playing field, and on that basis, I wish him every success in the next round of negotiations, I really do. - [Nigel Farage](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage "Nigel Farage"), EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, Breitbart news - What happens at 11pm this Friday the 31st of January 2020 marks the point of no return. Once we’ve left, we’re never coming back and the rest frankly is detail. We’re going, and we will be gone. And that should be the summit of my own political ambitions. I walked in here, you all thought it was terribly funny but you stopped laughing in 2016. But my view of Europe has changed since I joined. In 2005, I saw the constitution that had been drafted… and saw it rejected by the [French](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/France "France") in a referendum. I saw it rejected by the [Dutch](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Netherlands "Netherlands") in a referendum. And I saw you, in these institutions, ignore them. \[You brought it back\] as the [Lisbon treaty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Lisbon "w:Treaty of Lisbon"), and boast you could ram it through without there being referendums. Well, the [Irish](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland "Republic of Ireland") did have a vote and did say no, and were forced to vote again. You’re very good at making people to vote again, but what we’ve proved is the British are too big to bully, thank goodness. So I became an outright opponent of the whole European project. I want Brexit to start a debate across the whole of Europe. What do we want from Europe? If we want trade, friendship cooperation, reciprocity, we don’t need a [European Commission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Commission "w:European Commission"), we don’t need a European court. We don’t need these institutions and all of this power. And I can promise you, both in UKIP and in the Brexit party, we love Europe. We just hate the European Union. - [Nigel Farage](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage "Nigel Farage"), EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, Breitbart news - I hope this begins the end of this project. It is a bad project. It isn’t just undemocratic, it is antidemocratic. It puts in that front row, it gives people power without unaccountability. People who cannot be held to account by the electorate and that is an unacceptable structure. - [Nigel Farage](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage "Nigel Farage"), EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, Breitbart news - There is a historic battle going on across the west, in Europe, [America](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/United_States "United States"), and elsewhere. It is [globalism](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Globalism "Globalism") against [populism](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Populism "Populism"). And you may loathe populism, but I’ll tell you a funny thing. It is becoming very popular\! And it has great benefits. No more financial contributions, no more European Courts of Justice. No more European Common Fisheries Policy, no more being talked down to. No more being bullied, no more [Guy Verhofstadt](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guy_Verhofstadt "Guy Verhofstadt")! What’s not to like. I know you’re going to miss us, I know you want to ban our national flags, but we’re going to wave you goodbye, and we’ll look forward in the future to working with you as a [sovereign](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sovereignty "Sovereignty") nation… \[Farage is cut off by the chair\] - [Nigel Farage](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage "Nigel Farage"), EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, Breitbart news - In Britain, [hard-right revisionism](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Far-right_politics "Far-right politics") packed itself into the single, self-destructive nuclear option of Brexit. From the 2000s, anti-Europeanism was pursued with skill and determination by the upstart UKIP party (founded 1993) and among Conservatives by the old, unreconciled, Britain-first rump, perhaps a third of the parliamentary party. Shaken by diplomatic failures with his European partners and spooked by the rise of British anti-Europeanism, David Cameron, who was prime minister from 2010 to 2016, called a referendum on British membership of the EU, which he expected to win. On narrowly losing, rather than play for time a shaken Cameron announced within hours that “the instruction” of “the people” should be “delivered.” He resigned, leaving to his successors, [Theresa May](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theresa_May "Theresa May") and [Boris Johnson](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson "Boris Johnson"), an anti-liberal, populist discourse of people against elites, [democracy](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Democracy "Democracy") against [parliament](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom "Parliament of the United Kingdom"), which May nibbled at and Johnson swallowed whole. - Edmund Fawcett, Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition (2020), p. 349 - The rebellion against membership of the European Union, culminating in the British ‘Brexit’ referendum on 23 June 2016, represents a new highwater mark for anxious and distrustful popular sentiment. A little more than seventy years after the war against [extreme nationalism](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Far-right_politics "Far-right politics") appeared won, a small but clear majority of those who chose to vote essentially reaffirmed the near-absolute primacy of [nationalism](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nationalism "Nationalism") over [internationalism](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Internationalism "Internationalism"), reversing the political direction in which the United Kingdom and the rest of [Europe](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Europe "Europe") had appeared to be travelling since 1945. In the [United States](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/United_States "United States"), a phrase with dubious historical pedigree, ‘[America First](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/America_First_\(policy\) "America First (policy)")’, has become current once more. What we are living through is not, of course, precisely a repeat of the [1930s](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Great_Depression "Great Depression"). However, the study of the 1930s reminds us of the dangers of crass [inequality](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Social_inequality "Social inequality"), of international ‘beggar-my-neighbour’ competition, of the capacity of marginalized [social groups](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Social_group "Social group") for extreme violence based on the scapegoating of minorities, and of the many other consequences that flow from irresponsible and often sadly misjudged notions of national self-interest. - Frederick Taylor, 1939: A People's History (2020) - [Scotland](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Scotland "Scotland") will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on. - Scottish First Minister [Nicola Sturgeon](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicola_Sturgeon "Nicola Sturgeon"), Scottish First Minister, via [Twitter](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Twitter "Twitter"), according to [Brexit: New era for UK as it completes separation from European Union](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-55502781) posted December 31, 2020 #### 2022 \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=15 "Edit section: 2022")\] - Also, would a referendum settle this issue (Repeal of [Section 377A](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_377A_\(Singapore\) "wikipedia:Section 377A (Singapore)")) once and for all? May I remind Members and the PSP what happened in the UK with Brexit. Both sides campaigned vigorously and bitterly. It created and entrenched polarised identities. \[...\] In the process, the credibility of the British government was severely damaged. Indeed, it has yet to recover. - [Masagos Zulkifli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masagos_Zulkifli "wikipedia:Masagos Zulkifli"), Singapore Parl Debates; Vol 95, Sitting No 77; 29 November 2022. ## External links \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=16 "Edit section: External links")\] [![Wikipedia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/60px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png)](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg "Wikipedia") Wikipedia [Wikipedia](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikipedia "Wikipedia") has an article about: *[Brexit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brexit "wikipedia:Brexit")* [![Wiktionary](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Wiktionary-logo.svg/60px-Wiktionary-logo.svg.png)](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Wiktionary-logo.svg "Wiktionary") Wiktionary Look up *[Brexit](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Brexit "wiktionary:Brexit")* in [Wiktionary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiktionary "w:Wiktionary"), the free dictionary [![Commons](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/60px-Commons-logo.svg.png)](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Commons-logo.svg "Commons") Commons [Wikimedia Commons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Commons "w:Wikimedia Commons") has media related to: *[Brexit](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Brexit "commons:Category:Brexit")* ![](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?useformat=desktop&type=1x1&usesul3=1) Retrieved from "<https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&oldid=3782692>" [Categories](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:Categories "Special:Categories"): - [Politics of the United Kingdom](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Category:Politics_of_the_United_Kingdom "Category:Politics of the United Kingdom") - [2010s in the United Kingdom](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Category:2010s_in_the_United_Kingdom "Category:2010s in the United Kingdom") - [2010s in politics](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Category:2010s_in_politics "Category:2010s in politics") - This page was last edited on 22 July 2025, at 15:32. - Text is available under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/); additional terms may apply. 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Readable Markdown	[![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/21/European_Union_United_Kingdom_Locator.svg/250px-European_Union_United_Kingdom_Locator.svg.png)](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:European_Union_United_Kingdom_Locator.svg) The British people have voted to leave the European Union ~ [David Cameron](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Cameron "David Cameron") [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/97/EU-Austritt_%2847521165961%29.svg/250px-EU-Austritt_%2847521165961%29.svg.png)](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:EU-Austritt_\(47521165961\).svg) What happens at 11pm this Friday the 31st of January 2020 marks the point of no return. Once we’ve left, we’re never coming back and the rest frankly is detail. ~ [Nigel Farage](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage "Nigel Farage") [Brexit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brexit "w:Brexit") (a portmanteau of "British" and "exit") is the withdrawal of the [United Kingdom](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/United_Kingdom "United Kingdom") from the [European Union](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/European_Union "European Union"). Following a [referendum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_EU_referendum "w:2016 EU referendum") held on 23 June 2016 in which 51.9 percent of those voting supported leaving the EU, the Government [invoked Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_invocation_of_Article_50_of_the_Treaty_on_European_Union "w:United Kingdom invocation of Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union") which started a two-year leaving process which was due to conclude with the UK's exit on the 29 March 2019 and then, after an extension, on 31 October 2019. The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. ## Quotes about Brexit \[[edit](https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Brexit&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: Quotes about Brexit")\] - We [\[UKIP\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKIP "w:UKIP") seek an amicable divorce from the [European Union](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union "w:European Union") and its replacement with a genuine [free-trade](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Free_trade "Free trade") agreement, which is what my parents' generation thought we’d signed up for in the first place. - Said by [Nigel Farage](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage "Nigel Farage"). [UKIP news, issue 56](http://www.ukip.org/media/pdf/ukipnewsissue56.pdf), July 2004. - We no longer enjoy the same [liberties](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Liberty "Liberty") Americans do. We don't have a [constitution](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Constitutions "Constitutions"). We don't have a [First Amendment](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution "First Amendment to the United States Constitution"). What we have, and what the whole of [Europe](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Europe "Europe") has, is the [Lisbon Treaty](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lisbon_Treaty "Lisbon Treaty"), a kind of top-down [constitution](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Constitutions "Constitutions") that has been imposed on us against our will. And, unlike the [American Constitution](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution "United States Constitution") which empowers the people, the European constitution dis-empowers the people, and empowers the un-elected [bureaucrats](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bureaucracy "Bureaucracy") and career [politicians](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Politicians "Politicians") for whose sole benefit it was created. - [Pat Condell](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pat_Condell "Pat Condell"), ["Europe needs a revolution"](http://listenonrepeat.com/watch?v=s3u9LB32YYM) (25 August 2011), from [YouTube](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube "w:YouTube") - Once again, I challenge the Prime Minister to have an open debate with me on why he believes we must stay part of this failing, corrupt EU. The future of our nation is at stake. [Mr Cameron](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Cameron "David Cameron"), you have my phone number. - [Nigel Farage](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage "Nigel Farage") ["The time will never be right for David Cameron to hold a referendum on the EU"](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/9378567/The-time-will-never-be-right-for-David-Cameron-to-hold-a-referendum-on-the-EU.html), The Telegraph (5 July 2012) - \[Brexit\] is stupidity for a country with 53 percent of its exports going to [the Continent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Europe "w:Continental Europe") and to the rest of Europe. It’s even so stupid that Britain’s best friends, the [U.S.](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/United_States "United States"), don’t understand it all. - Said by [Guy Verhofstadt](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guy_Verhofstadt "Guy Verhofstadt"). Quoted by Politico. [Guy Verhofstadt’s 7 best Brexit burns](https://www.politico.eu/article/european-parliament-negotiator-guy-verhofstadts-7-best-brexit-burns/) (Quoted in August 2016; Said in January 2013) - \[An in/out referendum is\] going to put Britain through years of uncertainty, and take a huge gamble with [our economy](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_Kingdom "Economy of the United Kingdom"). - Said by [Ed Miliband](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ed_Miliband "Ed Miliband"). [David Cameron promises in/out referendum on EU](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21148282) BBC News (23 January 2013) - Years of uncertainty caused by a future EU referendum would hit [jobs](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jobs "Jobs") and [growth](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Economic_growth "Economic growth") and this is not in the national interest - Said by [Nick Clegg](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nick_Clegg "Nick Clegg"). [David Cameron promises in/out referendum on EU](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21148282) BBC News (23 January 2013) - I am ready to campaign with all my heart and soul to keep Britain inside a reformed European Union - Said by [David Cameron](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Cameron "David Cameron"). Quoted by the BBC. [Donald Tusk: Deal on UK's EU renegotiation 'very tough'](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34803222) (12 November 2015) - Let me be clear. Leaving Europe would threaten our economic and our [national security](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/National_security "National security"). - Said by [David Cameron](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Cameron "David Cameron") Quoted by the Independent. [David Cameron's EU referendum date announcement: Full text of speech](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-camerons-eu-referendum-date-announcement-full-text-of-speech-a6886191.html) (20 February 2016) - \[Britain would be\] freer, fairer and better off outside the EU - Said by [Michael Gove](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Gove "Michael Gove"). Quoted by the BBC. [UK 'better off' out of EU - Michael Gove](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35617843) (20 February 2016) - The EU offers our small [businesses](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Business "Business") and [tourism](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tourism "Tourism") sector huge opportunities, I can't understand why anyone would want to shut those opportunities down - Said by [Tim Farron](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tim_Farron "Tim Farron"). ['Huge' business and tourism opportunities from EU - Farron](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-35653200) BBC News (25 February 2016) - My judgment is that remaining a member of the European Union means we will be more secure from [crime](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Crime "Crime") and [terrorism](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Terrorism "Terrorism"). - Said by [Theresa May](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theresa_May "Theresa May"). [EU migration: UK to face 'free-for-all', Michael Gove warns](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36126993), BBC News, (25 April 2016) - The Leavers don't seem to have much clue about what is to happen afterwards. Curious, considering so many of them have spent their adult lives agitating for this moment. Their approach appears to be a version of [Napoleon](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Napoleon "Napoleon")'s battle strategy: 'On se dégage, et puis on voit.' What exactly is Out supposed to entail? How do they picture Britain's relationship with the EU, and with the rest of the world, after they’ve secured a vote for Exit on 23 June? - [Ferdinand Mount](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Mount "Ferdinand Mount") ["Nigels against the World"](http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n10/ferdinand-mount/nigels-against-the-world), London Review of Books 38:10 (19 May 2016) - The [Labour Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party "w:Labour Party") is about as united as it possibly can be in asking people to Remain - Said by [Tom Watson](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Watson_\(Labour_politician\) "Tom Watson (Labour politician)"). [EU referendum: Labour urges its voters not to back Brexit](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36496288) BBC News (10 June 2016) - As a [historian](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Historian "Historian") I fear Brexit could be the beginning of the destruction of not only the EU but also Western political civilisation in its entirety - Said by [Donald Tusk](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Tusk "Donald Tusk"). [Donald Tusk: Brexit could destroy Western political civilisation](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36515680) BBC News (13 June 2016) - Every family knows that a [divorce](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Divorce "Divorce") is traumatic for everyone. Everyone in the EU, but especially the Brits themselves, would lose out economically \[if Britain left the EU\]. - Said by [Donald Tusk](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Tusk "Donald Tusk"). [Donald Tusk: Brexit could destroy Western political civilisation](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36515680) BBC News (13 June 2016) - The British people have voted to leave the European Union and their will must be respected - Said by [David Cameron](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Cameron "David Cameron"). [Brexit: David Cameron to quit after UK votes to leave EU](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36615028) BBC News (24 June 2016) - Brexit means Brexit, and we're going to make a success of it. - Said by [Theresa May](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theresa_May "Theresa May"). [Theresa May Says UK Will Make Success Of Brexit When She Is PM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV6n6zNVw_I), Sky News - Youtube, 11 July 2016. (On 24 July 2019 Theresa May stood down as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom without Brexit having been achieved.) - The referendum is not binding. - Written by [Ken Clarke](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ken_Clarke "Ken Clarke") in a letter to constiuents after the [2016 EU referendum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_Kingdom_European_Union_membership_referendum "w:2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum") and quoted in [the Guardian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian "w:The Guardian"). Asthana, Anushka and Mason, Rowena (13 September 2016) [Ken Clarke tells constituents: 'EU referendum is not binding'](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/13/ken-clarke-tory-constituent-brexit-eu-referendum-not-binding) in the Guardian. Retrieved 8 July 2019. - Yes, on November 8, you Joe Blow, Steve Blow, Bob Blow, Billy Blow, all the Blows get to go and blow up the whole goddamn system because it's your right. [Trump's election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election "w:2016 United States presidential election") is going to be the biggest "fuck you" ever recorded in human history and it will feel good — for a day. Maybe a week. Possibly a month. And then, like the Brits, who wanted to send a message, so they voted to leave Europe, only to find out that if you vote to leave Europe, you actually have to leave Europe. And now they regret it. All the [Ohioans](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ohio "Ohio"), [Pennsylvanians](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pennsylvania "Pennsylvania"), [Michiganders](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michigan "Michigan"), and [Wisconsinites](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wisconsin "Wisconsin") of Middle England, right, they all voted to leave and now they regret it. And over 4 million of them signed a petition to have a do-over, they want another election, but it's not going to happen. Because you used the ballot as an anger management tool. And now you're fucked. And the rest of Europe. They're like, "Bye Felicia!" So when the rightfully angry people of Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin find out after a few months in office that [President Trump](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Trump "Donald Trump") wasn't going to do a damn thing for them, it will be too late to do anything about it. - [Michael Moore](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Moore "Michael Moore"), Michael Moore in TrumpLand (October 7, 2016) - Being a member of EU comes with rights and benefits. Third countries (non members as the UK will be after Brexit) can never have the same rights and benefits since they are not subject to the same obligations. The single market and its four [freedoms](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Freedom "Freedom") (which includes freedom of movement) are indivisible. Cherry picking is not an option. - Said by [Michel Barnier](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michel_Barnier "Michel Barnier"). [Brexit: EU negotiator says 'time's short' for reaching deal](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38221140) BBC News (6 December 2016) - I wish the result had gone the other way. I campaigned passionately for that. But as [democrats](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Democracy "Democracy") our party has to accept that result and it follows that the [prime minister](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom "Prime Minister of the United Kingdom") should not be blocked from starting the Article 50 negotiations. - Said by [Keir Starmer](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Keir_Starmer "Keir Starmer"). [Brexit decision 'difficult' for Labour, Keir Starmer says](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38799686) BBC News (31 January 2017) - Any \[Brexit\] deal is bound to be full of compromises which one group or another in [Parliament](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom "Parliament of the United Kingdom") finds difficult to stomach. - Said by [William Hague](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Hague "William Hague"). [Downing Street rejects Hague call for snap election](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39188042) BBC News (7 March 2017) - Our laws will then be made in [London](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/London "London"), [Edinburgh](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edinburgh "Edinburgh"), [Cardiff](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cardiff "Cardiff") and [Belfast](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Belfast "Belfast") and interpreted not by [judges](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Judges "Judges") in [Luxembourg](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Luxembourg "Luxembourg") but by judges across the United Kingdom - Said by [David Davis](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Davis "David Davis"). [Brexit: UK sets out plans to replace all EU laws](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39439554) BBC News (30 March 2017) - Your Prime Minister, your MP, Theresa May, called this election about Brexit. Have we heard from her what she plans to do about Brexit? No. This is mad. On Thursday, you are going to be faced with Prime Minister May, or [Prime Minister Corbyn](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeremy_Corbyn "Jeremy Corbyn"), against twenty-seven [prime ministers](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Prime_Minister "Prime Minister") from the European Union. It will be a shitshow. - Said by [Lord Buckethead](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_Buckethead "Lord Buckethead"). [Speaking a local hustings in Maidenhead](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJzW_gFoXR0) (5 June 2017) - There are two kinds of European nations. There are small nations and there are countries that have not yet realized they are small nations. - Said by [Kristian Jensen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristian_Jensen "w:Kristian Jensen") (13 June 2017), as cited in ["Brits angry at Dane's 'small nation' jibe"](https://www.politico.eu/article/kristian-jensen-brits-angry-at-danes-small-nation-jibe/), Politico (13 June 2017). - Speaking at the Road To Brexit conference in Copenhagen, Jensen was [Denmark](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Denmark "Denmark")'s Finance Minister at the time. [Dominic Schroeder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Schroeder "w:Dominic Schroeder"), then British ambassador to Denmark, said he saw no sign of his country being a "of a diminished or diminishing power". - No deal is better than a bad deal - Said by [Theresa May](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theresa_May "Theresa May"). [Boris Johnson: EU can 'go whistle' over Brexit divorce bill](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40571123), BBC News, 11 July 2017 - Since the Brexit negotiations begun there's a third emotion I've been feeling - embarrassment. Embarrassment at our country's leaders. Embarrassment for [Great Britain](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Great_Britain "Great Britain"). - Said by [Vince Cable](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vince_Cable "Vince Cable"). [Anti-Brexit marchers rally in Parliament Square](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41212505) BBC News (9 September 2017) - As Europe struggled to recover from [recession](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Great_Recession "Great Recession"), in 2015 the British prime minister [David Cameron](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Cameron "David Cameron") tossed [Brussels](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brussels "Brussels") a grenade. He said he would hold a referendum on the UK’s continued EU membership the following year. The torch of [British Euroscepticism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euroscepticism_in_the_United_Kingdom "w:Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom") had passed from [left](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics "Left-wing politics") to [right](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Right-wing_politics "Right-wing politics"). It was now [Conservatives](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_\(UK\) "Conservative Party (UK)") rather than [Labour](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_\(United_Kingdom\) "w:Labour Party (United Kingdom)") who were most anti-European. Cameron’s attempts to appease his ‘leave’ voters by negotiating reforms to the EU were dismissed by the ever cautious [Merkel](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel "Angela Merkel") and, in June 2016, to Cameron’s surprise and dismay, the British electorate voted narrowly to leave the EU. The vote was taken as binding by the [government](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Government_of_the_United_Kingdom "Government of the United Kingdom"). The date decided by Parliament for departure was March 2019. - Simon Jenkins, A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin (2018) - Britain’s departure could not lightly be dismissed. Its economy was second only to [Germany’s](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Economy_of_Germany "Economy of Germany") in size, and contributed twenty per cent of the EU budget. The UK might long have been half-hearted in its commitment to European union, but now it was not alone. A Pew survey in mid-2016 was one of many showing disapproval of the EU as high in [Germany](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Germany "Germany") and the [Netherlands](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Netherlands "Netherlands") as in Britain, and higher in [France](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/France "France") and [Spain](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Spain "Spain"). Few governments dared imitate Britain and hold an open vote on continued membership. Union might be popular but the EU was not. - Simon Jenkins, A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin (2018) - Brexit has been pushed by certain people who predicted easy solutions. Brexit has shown us one thing - and I fully respect British sovereignty in saying this - it has demonstrated that those who said you can easily do without Europe, that it will all go very well, that it is easy and there will be lots of money, are liars. This is all the more true because they left the next day, so they didn't have to manage it. - Said by [Emmanuel Macron](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Macron "Emmanuel Macron"). [Donald Tusk: Theresa May's Brexit trade plan won't work](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45586010) BBC News (20 September 2018) - Crashing out of Europe with no deal risks being a national disaster. - Said by [Jeremy Corbyn](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeremy_Corbyn "Jeremy Corbyn"). [Brexit: Jeremy Corbyn meets Michel Barnier for 'useful' talks](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45660640), BBC News, 27 September 2018 - Brexit was not our choice, it is the choice of the UK. Our proposal tries to help the UK in managing the negative fallout of Brexit in [Northern Ireland](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Northern_Ireland "Northern Ireland") in a way that respects the territorial integrity of the UK. - Said by [Michel Barnier](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michel_Barnier "Michel Barnier"). [Brexit negotiators working 'day and night' for agreement](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45816306) BBC News (10 October 2018) - For me, getting a good Brexit is about securing the freedoms and opportunities to plough our own furrow whilst enjoying a relationship of co-operation and trade with mainland Europe. - Said by [Derek Thomas](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Derek_Thomas "Derek Thomas"). Quoted in the Falmouth Packet. [Brexit conversation in Helston with MP Derek Thomas](https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/17215013.brexit-conversation-in-helston-with-mp-derek-thomas/) (10 November 2018) - Therefore now in the national interest we have got to come together and secure a compromise. If we can't do that, well yes, we have to go back to the people. - Said by [John McDonnell](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_McDonnell "John McDonnell"). [Brexit: Labour plan can get majority, says John McDonnell](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47170369) BBC News (8 February 2019) - Britain is basically [Pompeii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii "w:Pompeii") if Pompeii had voted for [the volcano](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruption_of_Mount_Vesuvius_in_79 "w:Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79"). - Said by [John Oliver](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Oliver "John Oliver") about Brexit "[Brexit III](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaBQfSAVt0s&t=870)" (ff. 0:14:30), (17 February 2019). - You cannot drag out Brexit for a decade. - Said by [Heiko Maas](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heiko_Maas "Heiko Maas"). [Brexit: Tusk says UK MEPs could sit for 'months or longer'](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47946256) BBC News (16 April 2019) - We've got to a stage where we feel that any deal is so controversial and may well be so far from what people voted for when they voted to leave, that we think that it is probably appropriate… that we say to the people, 'Is this what you wanted?' We just want to check. Because if it isn't, then let's stay. - Said by [Emily Thornberry](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emily_Thornberry "Emily Thornberry"). [2019 European elections: Labour MPs push for referendum pledge](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48068207) BBC News (26 April 2019) - I want us to leave the European Union, I think we should have left on the 29th of March but we've got these elections and I think it's really important that there's a good vote for ... people who do want to leave. - Said by [Jacob Rees-Mogg](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jacob_Rees-Mogg "Jacob Rees-Mogg"). Quoted by the BBC. [European elections 2019: Rees-Mogg backs Conservative candidate](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-48213519) (9 May 2019) - It is my honestly held view that Parliament will not be able to get a deal on Brexit and therefore the only choice, reluctantly, is to ask the people to take another look at it. - Said by [Tom Watson](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Watson_\(Labour_politician\) "Tom Watson (Labour politician)"). [Brexit: 'High price to pay' for Labour stance, says Watson](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48658683) BBC News (17 June 2019) - If the UK doesn’t pay what is due, the EU will not negotiate a trade deal. - Said by [Guy Verhofstadt](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guy_Verhofstadt "Guy Verhofstadt"). Quoted by the Independent [Boris Johnson news – live: EU 'will block trade deal' if UK refuses to pay £39bn divorce bill, as No 10 warns MPs they can't stop no-deal](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-news-live-brexit-speech-g7-press-conference-latest-a9078836.html) (26 August 2019) - I'm against any form of Brexit, I want to stop Brexit, but in particular a no-deal Brexit I think will be catastrophic for our economy, society, for a long time to come - Said by [Nicola Sturgeon](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicola_Sturgeon "Nicola Sturgeon"). [Nicola Sturgeon: Stopping no-deal Brexit is priority](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-49550873) BBC News (2 September 2019) - The more divergence there is, the more distant the partnership has to be. Without an extension of the transition period beyond 2020, you cannot expect to agree on every single aspect of our new partnership. Without the freedom of movement of people, you cannot have the free movement of [capital](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Capital "Capital"), [goods](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Commodity "Commodity") and [services](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Service "Service"). Without a level playing field on [environment](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Environment "Environment"), [labour](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Labour "Labour"), [taxation](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Taxation "Taxation") and state aid, you cannot have highest-quality access to the world’s largest single market. - Said by [Ursula von der Leyen](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_von_der_Leyen "Ursula von der Leyen"). [Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen have 'positive' meeting](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/08/ursula-von-der-leyen-uk-deadline-makes-full-brexit-deal-impossible) The Guardian (8 January 2019) - There is no need to give in on fish to complete a Free Trade Agreement. The UK must be firm - no more concessions. An FTA is in the EU's interest so dig in. - From a series of tweets by [John Redwood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Redwood "w:John Redwood"), a pro-Brexit MP. ["BBC under fire as reporter brands Brexit fishing expectations 'hopelessly naive'"](https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1226562/BBC-news-Brexit-fisheries-UK-EU-deal-John-Redwood-Boris-Johnson-France-latest), Express (10 January 2020) - Thank you, goodbye, and good riddance. - Croatian representative to the EU Irena Andrassy to UK counterpart [Tim Barrow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Barrow "w:Tim Barrow") (reportedly mistaking “good riddance” as being like “good luck”) — [Financial Times](https://www.ft.com/content/03d18b2a-4698-11ea-aeb3-955839e06441) (29 January 2020) - So this is it, the final chapter, the end of the road. A 47-year political experiment that the British frankly have never been very happy with. My mother and father signed up to a [common market](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Market "w:Common Market"), not to a political union, [flags](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Flag "Flag"), [anthems](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anthem "Anthem"), [presidents](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/President "President"), and now you even want your own [army](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Military "Military"). For me, it has been 27 years of campaigning and over 20 years here in this parliament. I’m not particularly happy with the agreement we’re being asked to vote on tonight. But [Boris](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson "Boris Johnson") has been remarkably bold in the last few months… he’s promised us there will be no level playing field, and on that basis, I wish him every success in the next round of negotiations, I really do. - [Nigel Farage](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage "Nigel Farage"), EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, Breitbart news - What happens at 11pm this Friday the 31st of January 2020 marks the point of no return. Once we’ve left, we’re never coming back and the rest frankly is detail. We’re going, and we will be gone. And that should be the summit of my own political ambitions. I walked in here, you all thought it was terribly funny but you stopped laughing in 2016. But my view of Europe has changed since I joined. In 2005, I saw the constitution that had been drafted… and saw it rejected by the [French](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/France "France") in a referendum. I saw it rejected by the [Dutch](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Netherlands "Netherlands") in a referendum. And I saw you, in these institutions, ignore them. \[You brought it back\] as the [Lisbon treaty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Lisbon "w:Treaty of Lisbon"), and boast you could ram it through without there being referendums. Well, the [Irish](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland "Republic of Ireland") did have a vote and did say no, and were forced to vote again. You’re very good at making people to vote again, but what we’ve proved is the British are too big to bully, thank goodness. So I became an outright opponent of the whole European project. I want Brexit to start a debate across the whole of Europe. What do we want from Europe? If we want trade, friendship cooperation, reciprocity, we don’t need a [European Commission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Commission "w:European Commission"), we don’t need a European court. We don’t need these institutions and all of this power. And I can promise you, both in UKIP and in the Brexit party, we love Europe. We just hate the European Union. - [Nigel Farage](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage "Nigel Farage"), EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, Breitbart news - I hope this begins the end of this project. It is a bad project. It isn’t just undemocratic, it is antidemocratic. It puts in that front row, it gives people power without unaccountability. People who cannot be held to account by the electorate and that is an unacceptable structure. - [Nigel Farage](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage "Nigel Farage"), EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, Breitbart news - There is a historic battle going on across the west, in Europe, [America](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/United_States "United States"), and elsewhere. It is [globalism](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Globalism "Globalism") against [populism](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Populism "Populism"). And you may loathe populism, but I’ll tell you a funny thing. It is becoming very popular\! And it has great benefits. No more financial contributions, no more European Courts of Justice. No more European Common Fisheries Policy, no more being talked down to. No more being bullied, no more [Guy Verhofstadt](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guy_Verhofstadt "Guy Verhofstadt")! What’s not to like. I know you’re going to miss us, I know you want to ban our national flags, but we’re going to wave you goodbye, and we’ll look forward in the future to working with you as a [sovereign](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sovereignty "Sovereignty") nation… \[Farage is cut off by the chair\] - [Nigel Farage](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage "Nigel Farage"), EU Farewell Speech, as quoted in Nigel Farage’s Final EU Speech: Mic Gets Cut as He Waves UK Flag in Victory, Breitbart news - In Britain, [hard-right revisionism](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Far-right_politics "Far-right politics") packed itself into the single, self-destructive nuclear option of Brexit. From the 2000s, anti-Europeanism was pursued with skill and determination by the upstart UKIP party (founded 1993) and among Conservatives by the old, unreconciled, Britain-first rump, perhaps a third of the parliamentary party. Shaken by diplomatic failures with his European partners and spooked by the rise of British anti-Europeanism, David Cameron, who was prime minister from 2010 to 2016, called a referendum on British membership of the EU, which he expected to win. On narrowly losing, rather than play for time a shaken Cameron announced within hours that “the instruction” of “the people” should be “delivered.” He resigned, leaving to his successors, [Theresa May](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theresa_May "Theresa May") and [Boris Johnson](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson "Boris Johnson"), an anti-liberal, populist discourse of people against elites, [democracy](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Democracy "Democracy") against [parliament](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom "Parliament of the United Kingdom"), which May nibbled at and Johnson swallowed whole. - Edmund Fawcett, Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition (2020), p. 349 - The rebellion against membership of the European Union, culminating in the British ‘Brexit’ referendum on 23 June 2016, represents a new highwater mark for anxious and distrustful popular sentiment. A little more than seventy years after the war against [extreme nationalism](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Far-right_politics "Far-right politics") appeared won, a small but clear majority of those who chose to vote essentially reaffirmed the near-absolute primacy of [nationalism](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nationalism "Nationalism") over [internationalism](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Internationalism "Internationalism"), reversing the political direction in which the United Kingdom and the rest of [Europe](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Europe "Europe") had appeared to be travelling since 1945. In the [United States](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/United_States "United States"), a phrase with dubious historical pedigree, ‘[America First](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/America_First_\(policy\) "America First (policy)")’, has become current once more. What we are living through is not, of course, precisely a repeat of the [1930s](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Great_Depression "Great Depression"). However, the study of the 1930s reminds us of the dangers of crass [inequality](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Social_inequality "Social inequality"), of international ‘beggar-my-neighbour’ competition, of the capacity of marginalized [social groups](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Social_group "Social group") for extreme violence based on the scapegoating of minorities, and of the many other consequences that flow from irresponsible and often sadly misjudged notions of national self-interest. - Frederick Taylor, 1939: A People's History (2020) - [Scotland](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Scotland "Scotland") will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on. - Scottish First Minister [Nicola Sturgeon](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicola_Sturgeon "Nicola Sturgeon"), Scottish First Minister, via [Twitter](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Twitter "Twitter"), according to [Brexit: New era for UK as it completes separation from European Union](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-55502781) posted December 31, 2020 - Also, would a referendum settle this issue (Repeal of [Section 377A](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_377A_\(Singapore\) "wikipedia:Section 377A (Singapore)")) once and for all? May I remind Members and the PSP what happened in the UK with Brexit. Both sides campaigned vigorously and bitterly. It created and entrenched polarised identities. \[...\] In the process, the credibility of the British government was severely damaged. Indeed, it has yet to recover. - [Masagos Zulkifli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masagos_Zulkifli "wikipedia:Masagos Zulkifli"), Singapore Parl Debates; Vol 95, Sitting No 77; 29 November 2022. [![Wikipedia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/60px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png)](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg "Wikipedia") Wikipedia [![Commons](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/60px-Commons-logo.svg.png)](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Commons-logo.svg "Commons") Commons
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