In September, the Rejoin EU Movement will be hosting a national march to demand a second referendum. Seven years on from the vote, Brexit is still as polarising as it was in 2016. Barny Gazey, 49, voted to leave the EU on 23 June, 2016. Since then, he has had many regrets – most of all, the impact he believes it has had on his son.
There is still a big misconception about Brexit voters. Most people think we are racist or uneducated. That might be the case for a percentage of Leave voters, but I think most of us were just conned. Conned into thinking we could have a better future: one in which there was more investment in Britain and more investment in jobs and apprenticeships. We were promised the earth.
I was never a fan of Nigel Farage or Boris Johnson. I thought they were idiots. I never really bought into what they were trying to sell. I knew we wouldn’t be getting £350m a week back from the NHS. But I did believe that Brexit would mean a better investment in employment for people like my son.
At the time my son was 17 years old and in college. I wanted him to be better off than me. I’ve never done anything brilliant. I have always done manufacturing. I thought he could join an apprenticeship scheme and get himself into a trade. I remember Boris Johnson saying that voting for Brexit would mean more apprenticeships to train people in emerging sectors. That sounded good to me. I had never had that opportunity. I wanted to give my son and daughter more of a future.
It was a huge mistake. My son currently doesn’t have a job, he struggled with college, but I hoped that an apprenticeship might have helped him figure out what he wants to do. With seven years of hindsight, Brexit was more about putting sanctions on ourselves. It was never about investing in our workforce. It was about stricter police enforcement and stricter immigration.
I am not anti-immigration. I didn’t think they would stop freedom of movement to and from Europe. I never wanted Europeans to feel unwelcome in the UK. When I voted to Leave, I couldn’t even fathom that that would be an issue.
The night that we officially left [31 Jan, 2020], I was managing cargo at my local airport. Up until 31 January, we were managing 60,000 packages to Europe a night. On 1 February, we did 2,000 packages. In just 24 hours, things fell off a cliff. I couldn’t believe it.
Now I am worried for my children. Thinking about what we had then and what we have now is soul-destroying. There is nothing here to inspire them. There are no benefits for them here.
My dad lives in Spain, and I think that leaving the EU has damaged people in the UK far more than it has affected people in the EU. Jacob Rees-Mogg said that Brexit was going to change everything. It has changed nothing. I have seen no benefits.
My son isn’t interested in politics. He thinks it’s all false. He felt very disenfranchised when David Cameron resigned after the vote. I think he felt abandoned. I understand why he thinks that. On the other hand, my daughter is getting her A-Level results in August. Hopefully, she will be going to university. She’s very politically active. They both want to have a second referendum. I hope that my son sees there is light in the tunnel but at the moment, there is very little here to inspire him.
Looking back, I wish I had known that the Brexiteers had no plan. Since we left the EU, policymakers have done nothing with it. Nothing helpful. The Brexit politicians have just lined their pockets and moved on. There have been no winners.
Most of my family voted to Remain. They think I was naïve, to put it politely. They were right. Brexit was a con. They tricked us into thinking we would be able to control our own destinies. Boris Johnson’s slogan was “Build Back Better”. We haven’t built anything, just more walls.
