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A Liberal Democrat councillor has revealed that she was diagnosed with PTSD because of Brexit, speaking movingly of the “profound impact” it has had on her life.
Antonia Harrison, who represents the party in Havant, near Portsmouth, said “something died in me… I just gave up” after Britain left the European Union.
Speaking at the party’s autumn conference in Brighton, Ms Harrison told The Independent: “I have not been in Sudan fighting in a war, but it has had a profound impact on me. I am European to my core, and my identity has been ripped out.
“I am European before I am English.”
Ms Harrison, a mental health therapist who stood against Penny Mordaunt in the 2019 general election, was speaking at a fringe event at the party’s conference. She said: “I actually have in my medical history, a diagnosis of PTSD over Brexit.”
Asked after the session about the claim, she said: “It is just on my record, at some point, they just put it on my record.
“It has had so many effects on my physical body, and things that have come out since. I have lost my voice many times and they put that down to trauma.”
Ms Harrison said her life was enriched by Britain’s membership of the EU, having lived in Brussels and learned eight languages. “The day after the election, I told my daughter ‘this is the worst day of your life’,” Ms Harrison said.
She added: “She has a masters in international law, she should be in Brussels like I was at her age, and instead she is stuck here.”
The Lib Dems’ long-term objective is to campaign for Britain to rejoin the EU, but the party first wants to fix the UK’s “broken relationship” with the bloc.
Senior party figures including Sir Ed Davey have used the gathering in Brighton to call for Britain to foster closer ties with its European neighbours, including by implementing a free movement policy for young people that would let 18 to 35-year-olds live and work across the bloc for up to three years.
Ms Harrison said the party needs to “wait for people to realise themselves it was a massive mistake” before campaigning to reverse Brexit.
Asked how Brexit has impacted her personally, Ms Harrison told The Independent: “We have a property in Marbella, I planned to retire there, I can’t. We still have the property, but we cannot get health coverage because of pre-existing conditions.”
Ms Harrison’s mother spent her last eight years in Spain and is buried in the country, she added.
She went on to describe how travelling through Malaga airport “gets me”, adding that the UK flag is now alongside the Moroccan flag in the sign for the non-EU passport queue.
“Every time, I start saying something… and we get back to the UK and it’s EU over there, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, all these far away places I have no intention of ever visiting,” she said.
Ms Harrison’s intervention came days after The Independent revealed that, were another referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU held today, the public would vote to reverse Brexit.
In a Redfield & Wilton poll, a clear majority of all voters said they would opt to rejoin the EU, while among Generation Z two to one would back the move.
The public thinks Brexit has made almost everything worse, from the economy to immigration, cost of living, NHS, wages, exports and Britain’s standing abroad to hopes of keeping Scotland and Northern Ireland in the union.
