An estimated three-quarters of young people aged between 18 and 24 voted remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum. Many did so in the conviction that leaving the European Union would turn Britain into a smaller, more insular place, closing off possibilities and prospects in their own lives. They feared a birthright was being lost; one which allowed them a bigger, wider sense of belonging.
Seven years on, that judgment is vindicated in a report by a cross-party committee of the House of Lords. Entitled The Future UK-EU Relationship, the peers’ analysis finds that, since the implementation of the trade and cooperation agreement (TCA) with Brussels in 2021, “post-Brexit barriers to mobility between the UK and the EU, in both directions, have had an especially significant impact on young people”.
