Beyond the meadows and uplands: the leave campaign's vision of the post-brexit future

Bolt, Michael 2025. Beyond the meadows and uplands: the leave campaign's vision of the post-brexit future. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

The vote for Brexit in 2016 represented more than a rejection of the EU. In this article, I focus on the alternate future Leave presented during the referendum campaign. I analyse visions of the post-Brexit future outlined by Vote Leave and Grassroots Out/Leave.EU. I classify their policy proposals using the themes: economics, EU relations, immigration, a Remain future, and the legal-political future. I use the framework of Rhetorical Political Analysis to examine how Leave campaigners endeavoured to persuade on the merit of their vision using rhetorical appeals in their speeches and texts. I argue Leave grounded their future vision in the status quo, presenting Brexit as a paradoxical instance of rupture and continuity. I find Leave primarily employed emotion-based rhetoric (pathos) to sell their alternative policy programme. The findings also reveal the centrality of ostensibly progressive, though overall exclusionary, policy proposals to Leave’s post-Brexit vision.

Item Type:	Article
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Schools > Cardiff Law & Politics
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	1369-1481
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	19 November 2025
Date of Acceptance:	20 October 2025
Last Modified:	21 Nov 2025 12:19
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/182523

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