East Anglian Daily Times 22 June 2026
Tuesday marks 10 years since the Brexit referendum - the largest turnout in any UK vote ever.
The campaign to leave was not led by Reform – which did not exist then. Nor was it led by Nigel Farage, who somewhat unhelpfully set up a rival organisation to the official Vote Leave campaign. While as UKIP voters were always going to vote for Brexit, their local supporters had to be diplomatically asked to stand aside and allow those of us in other parties and ordinary people to lead the campaign.
However, what none of us in the Vote Leave campaign either nationally or locally foresaw was the absolute refusal of hardline Remainers to accept the democratically expressed will of the British people.
On the afternoon Theresa May signed the Article 50 letter triggering our EU exit I happened to have an unrelated meeting with the EU High Representative in London and her head of political section. All I can say is, they were beside themselves with worry.
Tragically, the tactics of hardline Remainer MPs meant instead of being able to take advantage of that, we allowed the EU to impose a customs barrier down the Irish Sea, effectively splitting the UK economy in two and undermining our sovereignty. By doing so the EU committed a serious breach of international human rights conventions, something I set out at the time (https://tinyurl.com/2s3c62m7) on Brexit Central the main online Brexit think-tank.
What those Remainers who then sought to block, or now want to water down Brexit entirely fail to grasp is one of the key reasons so many ordinary people voted to leave the EU – was they saw it as too often acting like a bully.
A democratic vote must always be respected – and you only really respect it when you lose!
Dr Martin Parsons
Former Waveney District councillor (Cons)
West Mersea, Essex
The campaign to leave was not led by Reform – which did not exist then. Nor was it led by Nigel Farage, who somewhat unhelpfully set up a rival organisation to the official Vote Leave campaign. While as UKIP voters were always going to vote for Brexit, their local supporters had to be diplomatically asked to stand aside and allow those of us in other parties and ordinary people to lead the campaign.
However, what none of us in the Vote Leave campaign either nationally or locally foresaw was the absolute refusal of hardline Remainers to accept the democratically expressed will of the British people.
On the afternoon Theresa May signed the Article 50 letter triggering our EU exit I happened to have an unrelated meeting with the EU High Representative in London and her head of political section. All I can say is, they were beside themselves with worry.
Tragically, the tactics of hardline Remainer MPs meant instead of being able to take advantage of that, we allowed the EU to impose a customs barrier down the Irish Sea, effectively splitting the UK economy in two and undermining our sovereignty. By doing so the EU committed a serious breach of international human rights conventions, something I set out at the time (https://tinyurl.com/2s3c62m7) on Brexit Central the main online Brexit think-tank.
What those Remainers who then sought to block, or now want to water down Brexit entirely fail to grasp is one of the key reasons so many ordinary people voted to leave the EU – was they saw it as too often acting like a bully.
A democratic vote must always be respected – and you only really respect it when you lose!
Dr Martin Parsons
Former Waveney District councillor (Cons)
West Mersea, Essex
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