Bolt, Mike
2025.
Beyond the meadows and uplands: The Leave campaign’s vision of the post-Brexit future.
The British Journal of Politics and International Relations
10.1177/13691481251395308
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Abstract
The vote for Brexit in 2016 represented more than a rejection of the European Union (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, European Union 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 |
|---|---|
| Date Type: | Published Online |
| 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: | 02 Dec 2025 10:37 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/182523 |
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