We do not talk about Brexit anymore. So it is easy to forget about the origins of this damaging trend of lying and denial in politics. They in fact go further back than the premiership of Boris Johnson, to which they are often ascribed, to a vote in 2016, and to the cynical falsehoods told by the Leave campaign — the £350 million dividend for the NHS, the incendiary claim that Turkey was close to securing EU membership.
On this, Brexit’s sixth anniversary, it is worth reminding ourselves what the 2016 triumph of a campaign based on lies has done to British politics. It has forced those in charge into a lasting state of denial. They must (still) advocate for a project that they know cannot deliver on its promises. To oppose it means expulsion from any top jobs in politics — even those in opposition. To champion it is either to tell outright lies or to turn a blind eye to fundamental truths, as if you were stupid. Remember Dominic Raab, and this was pre-Johnson, suggesting that he “hadn’t quite understood” the significance of the Dover-Calais crossing to Britain’s goods trade, or Karen Bradley, then the Northern Ireland secretary, telling a journalist that she hadn’t known nationalists don’t vote for unionist parties.
