Despite the government’s statements, it is clear now that everyone who has any knowledge or expertise about pretty well anything agrees that Brexit will make the UK worse off. Event the government’s own research reaches this conclusion. The tech sector, the music industry, the games industry, the car industry, all of them and more are expressing serious concerns about the economic impact of Brexit.

Theresa May has fallen back on claiming that her deal will give us control over our borders, which is ‘what the British People voted for,’ she says. The rest of what she says is waffle, empty verbiage, and when it has any meaning is just untrue. We have now finally reached the truth about Brexit. It is about our borders, nothing else. Control over our borders is a euphemism for controlling immigration. Controlling immigration is a euphemism for xenophobia and racism.

Brexit is about stopping foreigners from coming here. It is a populist agenda that has no place in this country, and Theresa May is responsible for fanning its flames. This should come as no surprise. As Home Secretary she implemented the ‘hostile environment,’ that led to the Windrush Scandal. She made promises about reducing immigration to a level that was totally unrealistic, choosing to ignore how important immigrants are to our economy and instead reaching out to the xenophobic right of the electorate as they were migrating from her party to UKIP.

Her policies as Home Secretary already set the tone for this, trying to drive down immigration despite the fact that it is positive for the economy. Again, the only argument for that is xenophobia.

Immigration has been challenging culturally, as I wrote about in a previous essay. Large numbers of Eastern Europeans, especially from Poland, came to the UK after 2007. The other EU countries that the British had expected to open their borders at the same time did not, leaving the UK as the main destination for a wave of migration that had been estimated to distributed across Germany, France and other Western European nations.

These migrants tended to split into two groups, with the educated white-collar workers settling mainly in London and the South East, whilst the blue-collar workers moved out to the regions, which 9 years later were predominantly in favour of Brexit.

A responsible government could have challenged the backlash against this large wave of immigration with policies to help better integration, to support local communities, and to address responsibly the genuine anger felt by many people. There is no doubt that Eastern European immigrants create a positive net impact on the economy, so to argue otherwise is simply untrue and playing into populism.

However, the populist politicians behind Brexit, and Theresa May as prime minister, instead took advantage of the situation for personal political gain. Just as Trump preyed on the scared, diminishing white middle classes in America, May played on the fears of British people who felt threatened by a wave of foreigners. She played on an unhealthy, and un-British, xenophobia and underlying racism.

She and her Brexiteering colleagues claimed Brexit was about sovereignty, fed lies about being wealthier outside the EU, and allowed themselves to ride a wave funded by dark foreign money, and supported by Russian military propaganda units. But it was always about immigration, about our borders, about a raw fear of foreigners. 
 
And now, here we are, a country that is consciously choosing to become poorer in order to stop foreigners coming and stealing our jobs, which after Brexit we probably won’t have anyway.

The UK is a global nation. It is a country built on immigration, built by immigrants. It has always benefitted from migrants and refugees. Every wave left the country richer both culturally and economically. For the incumbents, even though they themselves are often descendants of immigrants, the new wave of people has often been unsettling, but it has always worked out. And our politicians and leaders have widely supported that and helped it along. When Mosely marched through the East End with his absurd Black Shirts, aping the Nazis and Fascists, they were chased out of town. Laws were passed to stop that happening again, including banning the wearing of political uniforms.

And when other countries tried to spread xenophobia, racism, and hatred our country went to war against them, defending liberty, freedom, and pluralism. Reflecting that set of beliefs, the Allied soldiers hailed from around the world, every race and religion. The UK was home for the Polish Free Forces, for the French government in exile, and many more. We welcomed refugees, and many of them, like Lord Dubs, rose to the top of society. They made this a better country, a richer country.

Theresa May has chosen to sell out, to abandon that British tolerance and magnanimity. She was willing to sell out on her own stated belief in the EU in order to become and remain Prime Minister. She and those of her government who still support this are pushing a lie on the British people, giving a veil of decency to a base xenophobia. It was never about the economy or sovereignty. It was a knee-jerk reaction against the rise of UKIP, and a quick trick to win over the populist right who had abandoned the Tories. What started as a dog whistle, turned into a howl, and then a shameless baying.

Now all that pretence has fallen away, and Theresa May is admitting that this is just about our borders. She wants to push Parliament into voting for a policy that will make the country poorer economically, and poorer culturally and socially. History will not forget this. In this mad melee of politicking we can miss what is obvious. But when historians write this up, they will see it for what it was, and May, Gove, Johnson, Mogg, Fox, and others will be shrouded in ignominy for selling out to populism.

And before you write in to complain, you who voted Brexit but are genuinely not racist or xenophobic, I know. You had good reasons, other reasons, about the economy, laws, sovereignty. So yes, you are not a racist. But you were misled. It was never really about those things. In the end, we would always be better off in the EU, we contributed to those laws, and we always had our sovereignty. It was only about the borders, and it was about stopping Conservatives from switching to UKIP.

We live in a parliamentary democracy. To May’s great shame she has tried to subvert that, even now holding back crucial information from MPs, and trying to coerce them into voting against their conscience. But in this democracy, we elect MPs to represent us, to act in our best interest. That is why we don’t have referenda, and why this one has done so much damage. Now our MPs are faced with a situation in which they widely believe May’s Brexit deal is not in our interest.

She continues to claim it is the ‘will of the people.’ I have already written about how that phrase is nonsense. A second referendum may overturn the first one, but it will not overturn ‘the will of the British people’ because that vote will also be the will of the British people. JK Rowling brilliantly pointed this out, and showed just what utter nonsense May is saying most of the time — clumsily crafted phrases devoid of meaning or sense, like her absurd ‘Strong and Stable,’ or ‘Brexit means Brexit.’ Her bastardisation of the English language is alone enough to mark her as unfit for her job.

So, let’s not be duped. The country is now faced with a choice. Be poorer and have fewer foreigners, or remain open and prosperous. Our elected representatives will look at their consciences, and I hope will not be swayed by this ugly little outbreak of populist xenophobia.