It's time to quash the myth that Brexiteers are obsessed with "empire"

Since the EU referendum, and indeed before, Brexiteers have had all sorts of horrible insults thrown at them. They’ve been called racists, xenophobes, gammons – and, more recently, it has been claimed that the ERG and Brexit Party are Nazis. These sorts of historical comparisons – used to evoke the worst parts of our past – are now commonplace. One of the strangest of them is the notion that Brexiteers are nostalgic for imperialism, a view that re-emerged on Twitter yesterday when the parliamentary correspondent for the Irish Times suggested that Leavers were “Little Englanders, pining for empire”. This hypothesis has even formed the basis for a recently published book titled Rule Britannia: Brexit and the End of Empire, which argues that Leavers “have a dangerously imperialist misconception of the country’s place in the world” that “began in childhood”.

As a Brexiteer, the idea that my vote had anything to do with empire has always been conspiratorial nonsense to me, not least because I was born in 1989: I spent most of my youth pondering the complexities of tamagotchis, not planning world takeovers. For much of the electorate, the British Empire is a million miles away from their existence; they were no more inspired by it than they were by Genghis Khan when they went down to the polling booths on 23 June, 2016. But the slur is something Remainers cling to whenever they want to shut down the opposition. Ironically, they are the ones who are obsessed with this part of British history.

To be clear with the conspiracy theorists, the empire analogy is defunct for all sorts of reasons, but mainly because Brexit has nothing to do with domination. It merely reflects Britain’s wish to pursue its own laws and democratic conventions – a sentiment which lots of other citizens in Europe share. If anything, it is the EU that deserves condemnation for its superstate powers, which are slowly eroding the ability of countries to decide their own rules and regulations. Understandably the British public rejected this set up in 2016, and should not be ostracised for doing so.

The empire line, like a huge number of the insults charged at Brexiteers, is just used as a way to shut down Leavers by making them sound racist and on the “wrong side of history”. It is supposed to shame them into silence, and place Remainers on the moral high ground. It is about censorship, first and foremost, and plays into the wider Left-wing conspiracy that the UK is a hostile, backwards country.

It is depressing that Brexit has consistently been characterised in these sinister terms when it is a trailblazing movement. It is a chance to build new trade ties and relationships with countries throughout the globe. As technology improves and developing markets grow, it seems not so much sensible as necessary. As for the idea that Britain is hostile, it is a lie. Many of us know this inherently, but frequent research backs it up: we are one of the most tolerant and outward-looking countries to live in, with positive views about immigration and religious diversity.

If any side has been insular throughout the Brexiteer process, it is not not Leave – but the stubborn Remainers who have never faced up to the outcome of the 2016 referendum. Some of these individuals could best be described as “Little Londoners”, so stuck in their city bubble that they cannot understand why anyone would want to break free from Brussels, even three years later. “But it’s so much cheaper to hire EU workers,” they say, before suggesting Leave has the condescending attitude to the rest of the globe.

Leavers are proud of their country, and believe it can succeed after leaving the EU. But that is not the same as nostalgia for empire. Like all of the things shouted at Leavers, the more desperate the insult, the more desperate you realise militant Remainers have become in their quest to thwart the result. It’s sad, really. With No Deal only 93 days away, it’s hard to know what creation they’ll come up with next.