Britain could undo Brexit and rejoin EU by 2036, Nick Clegg says

The UK will have rejoined – or be on the path to rejoining – the European Union by 2036, former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said on the tenth anniversary of the referendum.

Mr Clegg said he believes the UK will “sort of find its way back into the heart of the continent”, arguing that Brexit was “trying to deny geography”.

The former deputy prime minister, who led the Liberal Democrats in a coalition with the Tories from 2010 to 2015, has been a vocal opponent of Brexit.

A decade on from the vote, the British public – along with politicians of all political stripes – are still debating whether or not leaving the EU was the right decision.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Clegg said: “I do think the UK will, one way or another, sort of find its way back into the heart of the continent to which we are tectonically and geographically an inalienable part.

“One of the kind of crazy things about Brexit was that it was almost trying to deny geography. I mean, many of the Brexiteers seem to think that they’d prefer Britain to be located, I don’t know, adjacent to Singapore or Texas.

“But we’re here within the sort of muddy bits of the North Sea on the northwest fringes of the European continent, and that will always remain the case.

“And I think one way or another, our interests will always remain closely tied up with our closest geographical neighbours, in terms of security, in terms of trade, in terms of prosperity, and so on, in terms of crime, immigration, etc.”

He added that he “wouldn’t be surprised over the next decade or so if our fate, the UK’s fate, in terms of our relations with the European Union, becomes quite tied up with the fate of Ukraine”, which is currently undergoing membership negotiations with the EU.

Mr Clegg said: “We have spilt an enormous amount of sweat and treasure in trying to quite rightly defend the independence of Ukraine. The Ukrainian people, much like people in Iceland, Moldova, parts of the Balkans as well, are all knocking on the door to join the European Union.

“I find it almost unthinkable that Ukraine ... would sit at the top table of Europe, and we wouldn’t be alongside it.

“That’s going to take a while. I mean, look, we’ve had a decade since that decision in 2016. I think it wouldn’t be unreasonable to say, maybe by 2036 we’re either back into a changed European Union or certainly well on the way to doing so.”

His remarks come after a fresh poll conducted by Merlin Strategy for The Independent found that 55 per cent of people want a return to freedom of movement, while just 16 per cent said they oppose it. Meanwhile, almost two-thirds of people believe that immigration has got worse since Brexit, the poll shows.

The promise to regain control of Britain’s immigration system was central to the Brexit vote and has continued to dominate political discourse ever since.

Responding to the survey, Labour leader Neil Kinnock said, a decade on from the vote, people are increasingly “feeling the Brexit effects on pockets, purses, jobs and opportunities”.

“They are also recognising that the glib promises made by Farage and other Brexiteers were garbage”, he told The Independent.

“Negotiated return to the EU and the single market will be arduous, and it will take time. But the realities of proximity to the markets, of the condition of the UK economy, and the plain fact that we cannot allow ourselves to be stuck forever as a singular ’middle country’ will bring us nearer to joining again.”

Sir Keir Starmer, who resigned on Monday, had put a “reset” of relations with the European Union at the heart of his premiership.

He promised to undo some of what he described as “deep damage to our economy” inflicted by Brexit, but also set red lines: the UK would not rejoin the EU, the customs union, or the single market, and there would be no return to freedom of movement.

Following his resignation, with Andy Burnham widely expected to take his place, there are now question marks over what Britain’s future relationship with the EU will look like, and whether those red lines would still stand.

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