Brexit killed global Britain
“Where is global Britain on the streets of Kabul?” asked former Prime Minister Theresa May in the House of Commons. She was, of course, referring to the abandonment of our military presence in Afghanistan, making way for a Taliban takeover.
But anyone who is surprised by Britain’s lack of gall in this situation has missed the subtle signs appearing for months.
The role of the British Prime Minister was once one that meant something globally. Britain mattered, and so did the opinions of their leader. Yet now, Boris Johnson is a bystander, rather than a change-making leader.
In Afghanistan, he is a total observer, with reports that President Biden ignored his calls for 36 hours as the US withdrew. Even as Johnson sat in the Commons debate, he was a bystander while MPs from his own Party turned on him.
This bystander figure, though, is a running theme of Johnson’s. He’s a bystander when Priti Patel has broken the ministerial code. He’s a bystander when his country is campaigning furiously for free school meals for poor children. He’s a bystander when a member of his own cabinet was too busy on holiday to plan evacuations from Afghanistan.
So where did it all go wrong? The answer is simple: Brexit.
Domestically, the Brexit vote has been viewed as a retaliation against the Westminster elite, a shake-up of the political system. This is powerful rhetoric — it gives voters agency.
But internationally — where unity, cooperation, and leadership are what nations need — Brexit has been viewed as an isolationist policy. It is the UK cutting itself off from the rest of the world.
Not being in the European Union means not having a seat at the table for important discussions on climate change, foreign policy, and trade. Remaining ‘close’ with members is not good compensation as there is no guarantee that any interests of ours will be prioritised as they once were. Our leverage and influence have thus declined.
You only have to look at the chaos in Northern Ireland earlier this year to see the impact of Brexit. A shortage of construction materials, food and water. This was underreported, but it still happened. And it was undoubtedly a result of Brexit, which landed the most sensitive border issue possible right on Northern Ireland’s doorstep.
Then there was June’s G7 in Cornwall. By no means a giant failure, it was similarly no giant success. Promises were vague, especially where EU members and the US are concerned. These key players — our former close allies — made no specific commitment to increase and improve contributions to poorer nations. Only Canada and Germany pledged to increase their spending on poorer nations.
In fact, under a month later, Johnson’s government announced that they would be removing the UK’s commitment to spending 0.7% of national income on foreign aid. Instead, we will be contributing 0.5%, with no concrete promise from the Chancellor on when this the additional 0.2% will be re-introduced.
Save the Children has reported that young people are set to take the brunt of these cuts as areas of family planning, nutrition and reproductive health set to see “substantial” cuts. Even one of Johnson’s own, David Davis, rebelled against the cuts, rightly saying that they will kill thousands of people who need our help the most.
It’s also worth pointing out that in 2019, Afghanistan was in the top three highest recipients of UK bilateral aid. And now look what we have done.
Afghanistan is perhaps the biggest calamity of post-global Britain so far. In 2001, when we joined forces with the Bush administration — rightly or wrongly — Britain was a totally different player. A proud member of the European Union with strong international standing, we have become a shell of who we used to be.
Even in 2013, as President Obama recounts in his memoir, the US needed the British government’s support for military intervention in Syria. Without David Cameron, Obama could not go in. As it happened, MPs rejected air strikes in a vote, and so Obama’s plans were scuppered.
Just three years later, the Brexit vote would veer Britain off the road it was coasting along. Now, Biden pulls out of Afghanistan, leaving Britain with virtually no choice but to pull out, too.
The reason for this lack of choice is because of our diminishing global influence. Brexit is the root cause of this because if we don’t want to listen to others, who wants to listen to us?
This time, it is the lives of women and minorities that are most at risk because of our inability to stand on our own two feet. As Theresa May rightly pointed out in the Commons, forming a NATO alliance to remain in Afghanistan would have been an appropriate course of action for Boris Johnson.
But Johnson’s ‘global Britain’ failed to do this. The PM was seemingly unable to gather NATO members and convince them to uphold the past 20 years of progress in Afghanistan. This is despite us being one of the founding NATO members and having a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
It all begs the question: what have we become?
