Ashoka Mody

This could be Boris’s ‘Nixon goes to China’ moment

This “Brexit election” was about a lot more than Britain and the European Union. It was about the future of globalisation. As Gordon Brown underlined after the referendum, voters who chose to leave the EU had suffered unrelenting indignities on the “wrong side of globalisation”. These voters rang the alarm bells again in the European parliamentary elections in May this year and once again at this general election.

As prime minister, Boris Johnson’s test will not be whether he can deliver Brexit. Rather, history will judge him by his ability to counter his party’s conservative ideology and promote new opportunities for those who, with their children, are trapped in a bleak future. This could be Johnson’s ‘Nixon goes to China’ moment. But can he deliver?

British voters have now demanded Brexit three times

Brexit voters came from all backgrounds, rich and poor. But according to a study by the university of Warwick, a typical leave voter in June 2016 had low educational attainment, infrequently used smartphones and the internet, was more likely to receive government benefits, faced health adversities and suffered from low-life satisfaction.

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