Skip to content
Welcome, thoughtbot's Giant Robots listeners!Start here
Brexit
AI-generated illustration
ConceptGB

Brexit

UK's 2020 departure from the European Union after the 2016 referendum.

Six years after Brexit, the UK's share of Horizon Europe research funding rose to 9.3% in 2024, government figures showed on 5 June 2026, still below its 2018/19 level before the UK left the EU.

Last refreshed: 7 October 2026

Key Question

How does Brexit explain the political lineage of Reform UK in 2026?

Timeline for Brexit

View full timeline →

Background

Brexit is the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union. It followed the referendum of 23 June 2016 and was formally completed in January 2020, taking the UK out of the EU, its single market and its customs union.

Its political legacy runs from UKIP through the Brexit Party to Reform UK, with Nigel Farage at the centre of each. The Commons standards inquiry opened on 13 May 2026 into an undeclared £5m personal gift to Farage concerned a donor who had funded both the Brexit Party and Reform.

When ministers scrapped DSIT, the Science department, on 20 July 2026, Whitehall comparisons returned to the Department for Exiting the European Union, created for a single withdrawal task and later wound down.

Key Issues
EU research

Science ties with Europe partly recover

Figures published on 5 June 2026 showed the UK's share of Horizon Europe funding rising from 5.8% in 2023 to 9.3% in 2024, worth €994m. Its share of the programme's Pillar 2 grew from 3.7% to 6.2%. The recovery remains partial: the share is still below its 2018/19 peak, before the UK left the EU.

On 29 May 2026, Science Secretary Liz Kendall signed a UK-France biomedical alliance, the first bilateral Science deal of its kind since Brexit, putting £894,000 into linking the Isambard-AI supercomputer in Bristol with France's national supercomputing centre.

Common Questions

Reference

When did the UK formally leave the European Union?
The UK formally left the EU on 31 January 2020, following the 2016 referendum. The transition period ended on 31 December 2020, when the UK left the single market and customs union.Source: HM Government Brexit timeline

Recently resolved

Did Brexit cause Scottish independence to become more likely?
Scotland voted 62% Remain in 2016; the SNP used that divergence to argue Westminster overruled Scottish democratic preferences. The 2026 Holyrood election saw the SNP win 58 seats and immediately request a Section 30 independence referendum order, though it fell short of its own 65-seat trigger.Source:
How does the abolition of DSIT compare to the old Brexit department?
The Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) was created in 2016 for one defined task and closed cleanly in 2020 once Brexit was delivered. The 2026 abolition of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is being compared to that precedent, though DSIT was wound down mid-mandate rather than after completing a fixed task.Source: Lowdown
What did Brexit do to Welsh politics?
Wales voted 52.5% Leave in 2016, complicating Plaid Cymru's pro-EU position. In 2026, Plaid won the Welsh Government — the first non-Labour First Minister since devolution — suggesting Brexit-era voter shifts helped fragment Labour's Welsh Coalition without benefiting Plaid's EU stance.
How has Brexit affected the 2026 UK elections?
The Brexit voter realignment, with Leave towns abandoning Labour for Reform and Remain suburbs shifting to Labour or the Liberal Democrats, is the structural basis for Reform's 2026 local election gains in Sunderland, Wakefield, and Lancashire.Source: Lowdown
How did Scotland and Wales vote differently in the Brexit referendum?
Scotland voted 62% Remain and Wales voted 52.5% Leave. These divergent results continue to shape devolution politics: Scottish independence advocates use the Remain vote to argue Scotland is constitutionally overruled by England.Source: Electoral Commission 2016 referendum results
What is the connection between Brexit and Reform UK?
Reform UK evolved directly from the Brexit Party (2019), which itself was a relaunch of UKIP. Nigel Farage built the organisational and donor network through UKIP's EU campaigns, channelled it into the 2016 referendum, then used it to found and fund Reform UK.Source: Electoral Commission donation records and party histories
Source Material
Brexit: All you need to knowBrexit

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Updated 7 October 2026. Editorial standards.