Taking Back Control? The U.K. Parliament and the Brexit Withdrawal Negotiations

MERCATOR Publication (2019)

Britain’s vote to withdraw from the EU triggered a series of debates about the nature of the British state and political system, not least the role of the U.K. parliament. While focus has been on U.K.-EU negotiations, institutional developments within the United Kingdom have been equally important to anybody wishing to understand Brexit. Brexit is as much about what sort of country Britain wants to be as it is about U.K.-EU relations. While the Vote Leave campaign urged the British people to ‘take back control’, it is unclear where control would be taken back to or who it would be taken from. This is because there are conflicting understandings of where power lies in the United Kingdom.