Reversing Brexit, not quite as easy as some people think

Many voted to stay in the EU (including me). Rejoining the EU may sound simple, but the Europe Britain left no longer exists. With a string of major elections approaching and far-right nationalist parties surging across the continent, a future EU could be shaped far more by figures such as Le Pen (France), Meloni (Italy) and the AfD (Germany) than by the centrist consensus of the past. If a more Gaullist Europe emerges, one of the biggest obstacles to re-entry may be a simple question from Brussels, Paris and other capitals: why would they want Britain back?

Would this be a Europe that Labour, LibDems and Greens would like? Le Pen’s vision of Europe is more like Thatcher's, so ironically it might be more amenable to the Conservatives and Reform than to the Left, repatriating powers over the very things that the PM wants to delegate to the Commission.

Much of European law and regulation is about farming and the environment. Brexit dismantled the Common Agricultural Policy and led to major domestic reforms, including the Agriculture Act and Environment Act. Rejoining would mean accepting the evolving EU rulebook in full - “giving back control”. Ditto energy, state subsidies and immigration. It’s all much more complicated than some naively assume.