Take back control

Last updated

"Take back control", or sometimes "let's take back control", was a British political slogan associated with the Brexit referendum, popularised by the Vote Leave campaign. It was used by supporters of Brexit, Britain's withdrawal from the European Union. The slogan implied that Britain's sovereignty, ability to make its own laws and ability to control its borders had been lost due to its membership of the EU and would return after withdrawal. It has been associated with anti-immigration sentiment. [1] [2] [3] [4] Created by then director of Vote Leave Dominic Cummings, [5] it is cited as one of the "three word slogans" that have been used frequently in British politics. [4] [6]

Use

The slogan was present from the launch of the Vote Leave campaign at its headquarters on 20 February 2016, at which John Whittingdale, Theresa Villiers, Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Iain Duncan Smith and Priti Patel posed behind a banner reading "let's take back control". [7]

In January 2023, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer used the term, stating that the slogan was "really powerful, it was like a Heineken phrase … it got into people’s heads," and that "the control people want is control over their lives and their communities." He put forward that Labour would "embrace the take back control message, but we’ll turn it from a slogan into a solution." Following this, he made a promise of a "take back control bill" which he said would devolve more powers to local communities. [8] [9]

Meaning and effectiveness

A main message of the slogan was its support for the restoration of a lost British sovereignty that its supporters believed had been taken by the nation's membership of the European Union. [1] Through the adoption of the "take back control" slogan, sovereignty became instrumental aspect of the Vote Leave campaign. [2] According to Andrew Gamble, the slogan portrayed "a vision of Britain as once again an independent country in full control of its laws, its borders, and its money". Gamble has compared the term in this sense to the American slogan used by Donald Trump, "Make America Great Again". [1]

Another main message interpreted within the slogan is the regaining of control of the borders of the United Kingdom. [4]

More generally, the slogan symbolized a return to Britain's past. Some academics have argued that the slogan is linked to Britain's imperial past. [10] Jeremy Fox for OpenDemocracy has argued that it "carried an emotional appeal to the English founded on their cultural heritage – just as a similar emotion surely appealed to those Scots who, in voting for independence from the UK in 2014, bore in their veins the widely-resented 1707 Act of Union with England." [11] Jack Black has argued that the slogan "provided a prism through which UK-EU relations could be projected through English anxieties regarding its imperial decline." [10]

Criticism

The slogan received frequent criticism in terms of its central sovereignty argument. The director of think tank Chatham House wrote in June 2016 that it was "an empty slogan unless doing so improves prospects for British citizens. In an increasingly interdependent world, Britain will be better off pooling discrete areas of its sovereign power with 500 million fellow Europeans than leaving its population of 65 million beholden to the rules and whims of others." [2] Jack Black has argued that "the 'take back control' slogan failed to elaborate on where such sovereignty would lie: with Westminster (the UK government) or with an independent English parliament?" [10]

The slogan also received criticism on account of its political framing of border control and immigration. Katy Hayward put forward in 2020 that the slogan represented "not only the misunderstanding of the nature of territorial sovereignty in the contemporary world [...] but also a misrepresentation of the UK’s borders themselves," as it assumed the UK was an "island nation" and "that border control means, simply, immigration control," despite its land connection to the EU through the Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border. She argued that the border's "very existence disrupts the Brexitian conception of the British state." [4]

Others have criticised the use of the term to symbolise a return to the past. John Agnew stated in 2019 that "Brexit has turned out to be so hard to accomplish because in its most publicly expressed aspiration, to take back control to ‘how things were’, it is impossible." [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom</span> Criticism/Opposition to the European Union in the United Kingdom

Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom is a continuum of belief ranging from the opposition to certain political policies of the European Union to the complete opposition to the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union. It has been a significant element in the politics of the United Kingdom (UK). A 2009 Eurobarometer survey of EU citizens showed support for membership of the EU was lowest in the United Kingdom, alongside Latvia and Hungary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Get Britain Out</span> British lobbying group

Get Britain Out is a United Kingdom-based independent cross-party grassroots Eurosceptic group which campaigned for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. The campaign is still in operation and is pushing for the UK to break away from continued alignment with the European Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Kingdom–European Union relations</span> Bilateral relations

Relations between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) are governed, since 1 January 2021, by the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum</span> Referendum on leaving the European Union

The 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, was a referendum that took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar under the provisions of the European Union Referendum Act 2015 to ask the electorate whether the country should continue to remain a member of, or leave, the European Union (EU). The result was a vote in favour of leaving the EU, triggering calls to begin the process of the country's withdrawal from the EU commonly termed "Brexit".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brexit</span> The United Kingdoms withdrawal from the European Union

Brexit was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Following a referendum held in the UK on 23 June 2016, Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020. The UK, which joined the EU's precursors the European Communities (EC) on 1 January 1973, is the only member state to have withdrawn from the EU. Following Brexit, EU law and the Court of Justice of the European Union no longer have primacy over British laws. The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 retains relevant EU law as domestic law, which the UK can amend or repeal.

The result in favour of Brexit of the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum is one of the most significant political events for Britain during the 21st century. The debate provoked major consideration to an array of topics, argued up-to, and beyond, the referendum on 23 June 2016. The referendum was originally conceived by David Cameron as a means to defeat the anti-EU faction within his own party by having it fail, but he misjudged the level of public support for leaving, particularly amongst Labour Party voters. Factors included sovereignty, immigration, the economy and anti-establishment politics, amongst various other influences. The result of the referendum was that 51.8% of the votes were in favour of leaving the European Union. The formal withdrawal from the EU took place at 23:00 on 31 January 2020, almost three years after Theresa May triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty on 29 March 2017. This page provides an overarching analysis of the different arguments which were presented by both the Leave and Remain campaigns.

The effect of Brexit on Gibraltar concerns the status of Gibraltar after the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union ("Brexit"). The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020, having formally notified the EU in March 2017 of its intention to do so. Gibraltar is not part of the UK, but unlike all other British Overseas Territories, it was a part of the European Union along with the UK. It participated in the Brexit referendum and it ceased, by default, to be a part of the EU upon the UK's withdrawal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Impact of Brexit on the European Union</span>

In 2016, the impact of Brexit on the European Union (EU) was expected to result in social and economic changes to the Union, but also longer term political and institutional shifts. The extent of these effects remain somewhat speculative until the precise terms of the United Kingdom's post-Brexit relationship with the EU becomes clear. With an end to British participation in the EU's policies on freedom of movement of goods, persons, services, and capital, and the European Union Customs Union, as well as sharing criminal intelligence and other matters, there is a clear impact with consequences for both institutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brexit and the Irish border</span> Effect on Irelands UK/EU border

The impact of Brexit on the Irish border and its adjacent polities involves changes in trade, customs, immigration checks, local economies, services, recognition of qualifications, medical cooperation, and other matters, as it is the only land border between the United Kingdom and the European Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brexit withdrawal agreement</span> 2020 EU–UK agreement for implementing Brexit

The Brexit withdrawal agreement, officially titled Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, is a treaty between the European Union (EU), Euratom, and the United Kingdom (UK), signed on 24 January 2020, setting the terms of the withdrawal of the UK from the EU and Euratom. The text of the treaty was published on 17 October 2019, and is a renegotiated version of an agreement published in November 2018. The earlier version of the withdrawal agreement was rejected by the House of Commons on three occasions, leading to the resignation of Theresa May as Prime Minister and the appointment of Boris Johnson as the new prime minister on 24 July 2019.

The Irish backstop was a proposed protocol to a draft Brexit withdrawal agreement that never came into force. It was developed by the May government and the European Commission in December 2017 and finalised in November 2018, and aimed to prevent an evident border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland after Brexit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proposed referendum on the Brexit withdrawal agreement</span> Proposal for a second referendum

A referendum on the Brexit withdrawal agreement, also referred to as a "second referendum", a "rerun", a "people's vote", or a "confirmatory public vote", was proposed by a number of politicians and pressure groups as a way to break the deadlock during the 2017–19 Parliament surrounding the meaningful vote on the Brexit deal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brexit negotiations in 2018</span> 2018 EU–UK negotiations regarding Brexit

Brexit negotiations in 2018 took place between the United Kingdom and the European Union for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union following the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum on 23 June 2016. The negotiating period began on 29 March 2017 when the United Kingdom served the withdrawal notice under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. The period for negotiation stated in Article 50 is two years from notification, unless an extension is agreed. In March 2019, British prime minister Theresa May and European leaders negotiated a two-week delay for the Parliament of the United Kingdom to agree on the government's Brexit treaty, moving the date from 29 March 2019 to 12 April 2019. Negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union regarding Brexit began in June 2017, with the following negotiations taking place during 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brexit negotiations in 2019</span> 2019 EU–UK negotiations regarding Brexit

Brexit negotiations in 2019 started in August, after having originally concluded in November 2018 with the release of the withdrawal agreement. Negotiations took place between the United Kingdom and the European Union during 2017 and 2018 for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union following the referendum held on 23 June 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Ireland Protocol</span> Part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement

The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, commonly abbreviated to the Northern Ireland Protocol, is a protocol to the Brexit withdrawal agreement that sets out Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit relationship with both the EU and Great Britain. The Withdrawal Agreement, including the Protocol, came into effect on 1 January 2021. Citing the island of Ireland's "unique circumstances," the Protocol governs unique arrangements on the island between the United Kingdom and the European Union; it regulates some aspects of trade in goods between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Predicted impact of Brexit</span> Predicted long-term effects of Brexit

This article outlines the predicted impact of Brexit, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) and the European Atomic Energy Community.

In the wake of the referendum held in the United Kingdom on 23 June 2016, many new pieces of Brexit-related jargon entered popular use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement</span> Post-Brexit agreement of December 2020

The EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) is a free trade agreement signed on 30 December 2020, between the European Union (EU), the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and the United Kingdom (UK). It provisionally applied from 1 January 2021, when the Brexit transition period ended, before formally entering into force on 1 May 2021, after the ratification processes on both sides were completed: the UK Parliament ratified on 30 December 2020; the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union ratified in late April 2021.

The political positions of Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024 and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020, have frequently changed. Views of his political philosophy are diverse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020</span> UK law relating to internal trade

The United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed in December 2020. Its purpose is to prevent internal trade barriers within the UK, and to restrict the legislative powers of the devolved administrations in economic policy. It is one of several pieces of legislation concerning trade that were passed following the European Union membership referendum, as after Brexit the UK is no longer directly subject to EU law.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Gamble, Andrew (3 August 2018). "Taking back control: the political implications of Brexit". Journal of European Public Policy . 25 (8): 1215–1232. doi:10.1080/13501763.2018.1467952. ISSN   1350-1763. S2CID   158602299.
  2. 1 2 3 Ringeisen-Biardeaud, Juliette (16 March 2017). "'Let's take back control': Brexit and the Debate on Sovereignty". Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique. French Journal of British Studies. 22 (2). doi: 10.4000/rfcb.1319 . ISSN   0248-9015.
  3. ↑ Smith, Julie (2019). "Fighting to 'Take Back Control': The House of Lords and Brexit". Brexit and Democracy: The Role of Parliaments in the UK and the European Union. European Administrative Governance. Springer International Publishing. pp. 81–103. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-06043-5_4. ISBN   978-3-030-06042-8. S2CID   159127418.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Hayward, Katy (14 March 2020). "Why it is impossible for Brexit Britain to 'take back control' in Northern Ireland". Territory, Politics, Governance. 8 (2): 273–278. doi:10.1080/21622671.2019.1687328. ISSN   2162-2671. S2CID   216209860.
  5. ↑ "Dominic Cummings: How does he now earn a living?". BBC News . 24 July 2019. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  6. ↑ Rentoul, John (1 July 2020). "Why are three-word political slogans so effective?". The Independent . Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  7. ↑ Watt, Nicholas (20 February 2016). "Michael Gove and five other cabinet members break ranks with PM over EU". The Guardian . ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  8. ↑ Boscia, Stefan (5 January 2023). "Keir Starmer vows post-Brexit 'take back control bill' if Labour wins UK election". Politico . Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  9. ↑ Morton, Becky (5 January 2023). "Keir Starmer embraces Brexit slogan with 'take back control' pledge". BBC News . Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  10. 1 2 3 Black, Jack (3 April 2019). "From mood to movement: English nationalism, the European Union and taking back control". Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research. 32 (2): 191–210. doi:10.1080/13511610.2018.1520080. ISSN   1351-1610.
  11. ↑ Fox, Jeremy (26 January 2017). "England has been resenting Europe for a very long time". OpenDemocracy . Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  12. ↑ Agnew, John (14 March 2020). "Taking back control? The myth of territorial sovereignty and the Brexit fiasco". Territory, Politics, Governance. 8 (2): 259–272. doi:10.1080/21622671.2019.1687327. ISSN   2162-2671.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.