Your verdict on Brexit five years after the vote

IT’S BEEN five years since the people of the United Kingdom voted in a referendum to leave the European Union.

In those five years, as a nation we’ve welcomed two new prime ministers and cheered on England as they nearly brought the Euro 2020 trophy home.

Yet in those same five years, we’ve also been hit by the worst health threat in living memory, Covid-19, and more recently shoppers have battled panic buying at the pumps.

People in Huddersfield explained how they’d vote today and how they feel Brexit is going.

“I’d definitely choose to remain,” said Emma Stocks, from Dalton.

“You’ve got the country back. Now what?

“I voted to stay last time too, but this just proves we were right. The country is a joke. It’s been one bad decision after another. People kept talking about wanting their jobs back, wanting the country back, but so many vacancies are still unfulfilled. The country’s yours, but now what? It doesn’t feel very progressive.”

A similar sentiment was shared by Marilyn Taylor, a pensioner who lives in Honley.

She said: “If I were given the choice, I would vote to remain because I think we’re in such a big mess right now. Boris (Johnson) is trying to blame businesses for shortages of drivers and shortages of foods, but there’s shortages of everything and he keeps blaming it on Covid.

“But I don’t think that’s fair. We were far better off as we were, where we could all work together – and I don’t think we can fix things without returning to that.”

But Julian Schofield disagreed, arguing that ‘none of the issues’ were about Brexit.

He said: “It’s too early to say whether Brexit is a good or bad thing. It took the EU ages to give the power back to the

UK, and it’s still too new to really say one way or another what the impact has been. None of the recent issues are really due to Brexit.

“The overcrowding of hospitals, the petrol shortages, the loss of jobs. They could just as easily be a result of Covid and I think before we condemn it, we need to give it a fair chance.”

Jane Broadhead, from Mirfield, raised concerns about Brexit’s impact on pensions and those wishing to retire abroad.

She said: “I think Brexit’s really going to affect a lot of people in later life. People that want to retire abroad, they won’t be able to get their pensions, so this thing they’ve been paying into all their lives, is suddenly going to waste, which is a shame. It’d be so lovely to retire abroad, but because of the Brexit situation, they just can’t.”

Of all the people we spoke to on the streets of Huddersfield, the overwhelming majority were in favour of remaining, including several students, who weren’t old enough to vote in the referendum.

“I felt we were frozen out,” said Mohammad, a student at Huddersfield University.

“It was going to impact our future, our lives, and we weren’t given a proper say. I would vote to remain, although I do understand why some chose leave and if the promises made had been delivered on, I would’ve been more unsure about it.”