Ten Years On: Britain's Brexit Reckoning
It has been a decade since Britain made one of the most consequential democratic decisions in its modern history. On June 23, 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union — a choice that reshaped the country's politics, rattled its economy, and divided its people in ways that are still being felt today. As the ten-year anniversary arrives, Britain finds itself in an uncomfortable position: not quite the global powerhouse that Leave campaigners promised, yet not the catastrophic ruin that Remain supporters feared. For many, it is something far more frustrating — a muddled middle ground defined by sluggish growth, political missteps, and unanswered questions about what comes next.
Against this backdrop, the voices of British business leaders have become particularly telling. Some are furious. Others remain defiant. And a few, like Simon Boyd, managing director of REIDSteel, occupy a complicated space: disillusioned with the results, but utterly unwilling to admit the vote itself was wrong.
Who Is Simon Boyd, and Why Does His Opinion Matter?
Simon Boyd runs REIDSteel, a firm based in Christchurch on the south coast of England that manufactures prefabricated steel structures. His company exports these structures to customers across the globe — from Ghana to Barbados — making him exactly the kind of outward-looking entrepreneur that both the Leave and Remain camps claimed to champion. Boyd employs around 130 people and has skin in the game when it comes to trade, tariffs, and international competitiveness.
Boyd voted for Brexit in 2016 and, remarkably, he has not changed his mind. At a time when polls suggest growing numbers of Britons regret the decision, Boyd's position stands out. But his defense of Brexit is not naive — it is laced with frustration, pragmatism, and a pointed finger at the politicians he believes failed to deliver on the promise.
What Brexit Was Supposed to Deliver
The Leave campaign in 2016 made sweeping promises. Freed from the regulations and bureaucracy of EU governance, Britain would "take back control" of its laws, its borders, and its destiny. Trade deals would be struck with the world's fastest-growing economies. British businesses would be unburdened from red tape. And the economy, no longer constrained by the slow-moving machinery of Brussels, would flourish.
A decade later, the reality looks quite different. Economic growth in the UK has been described by analysts as anemic. Taxes have risen. Public services — from the NHS to local councils — are under severe strain. And one of the Leave campaign's central promises, controlling immigration, has also proven elusive: migrants continue to cross the English Channel in inflatable boats, a nightly fixture on the news that has become a symbol of policy failure regardless of which party holds power.
Boyd's Honest Assessment: 'It Hasn't Delivered Everything'
Boyd does not sugarcoat the disappointment. Speaking to the Associated Press, he acknowledged directly that Brexit has not lived up to everything promised. "No, it's not delivered everything that was said it would deliver on the tin, but it is delivering," he said. "It's very sluggish. You only need to look at the statistics to see that."
But in Boyd's view, the blame lies not with the decision to leave, but with the politicians tasked with executing it. His argument is straightforward: Brexit, as a concept, was sound. Brexit, as implemented by a series of distracted and uncommitted governments, was fumbled. Britain has also endured a brutal stretch of external shocks over the past decade — the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and global inflationary pressures — that would have tested any economy, inside or outside the EU.
Re-Boarding the Titanic: Boyd's Case Against Rejoining the EU
Perhaps the most striking element of Boyd's position is his fierce opposition to the growing conversation about rejoining the European Union. As some politicians and commentators cautiously float the idea of closer alignment or even full re-accession, Boyd is having none of it. His metaphor is vivid and unambiguous: rejoining the EU, he says, would be like "re-boarding the Titanic" — while also giving up the life vests.
The imagery is deliberately stark. In Boyd's framing, the EU is not a safe harbor that Britain foolishly abandoned. It is a sinking ship — an institution weighed down by structural problems, a democratic deficit, and an inability to adapt quickly enough to a rapidly changing world. Rejoining, in his view, would mean not just returning to a flawed arrangement, but doing so without even the legal and political protections that an independent Britain now holds as sovereign tools.
The Other Side: Voices Like Mike Hawes Reflect the Frustration
Not everyone in British business shares Boyd's resilience. Mike Hawes, head of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and a vocal Remain supporter in 2016, represents an industry that has been hit hard by Brexit-related trade friction and supply chain disruption. Britain's automotive sector has faced significant headwinds, with production numbers declining and investment decisions increasingly being made in favor of EU-based facilities.
Hawes and Boyd voted differently in 2016. But crucially, both are frustrated today — a telling sign that Brexit's legacy is not a simple story of winners and losers, but a more complicated national reckoning with promises made and promises broken.
What the Brexit Debate Tells Us About Britain in 2026
The tenth anniversary of the Brexit vote does not feel celebratory for most. But it does offer a moment of sober reflection. Britain is an independent nation navigating a world that has changed dramatically since 2016. It has trade deals with dozens of countries. It also faces higher barriers to its closest and largest market. It controls its own laws. It also carries the weight of rebuilding infrastructure, workforce pipelines, and supply chains that were built around EU membership over nearly five decades.
- UK economic growth has lagged behind comparable European economies since 2016.
- Trade with the EU has declined relative to pre-Brexit projections, though exports to non-EU markets have grown.
- Immigration remains a politically charged issue, with net migration figures actually rising in the years after Brexit.
- Public support for rejoining the EU has grown in recent polls, though it remains far from a political consensus.
For businesspeople like Simon Boyd, the answer to these challenges is not to reverse the decision, but to finally commit to executing it properly. Whether Britain's political class is capable of that — or whether the debate about EU membership will return as a serious electoral issue — remains very much an open question as the country enters the second decade of its post-Brexit existence.
Final Thought: Defiance, Disappointment, and the Road Ahead
Simon Boyd's story is not the story of a Brexit zealot blind to the costs. It is the story of a pragmatic businessperson who made a bet, watched politicians fumble it, weathered external storms, and still believes the underlying decision was right. His "re-boarding the Titanic" line may be provocative, but it captures something real about how a significant portion of British voters continue to feel: that the problems of the EU were never solved by staying, and that whatever Brexit's failures, they are failures of execution, not of principle. As Britain marks ten years since that historic vote, that argument — contested, frustrated, and fiercely held — remains very much alive.