A key argument deployed by those in favour of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union concerned the restoration of parliamentary sovereignty. One of the ironies of Brexit is that some of the leading figures who argued for parliamentary sovereignty during the 2016 referendum tried to shut down Parliament three years later so that they could ‘get Brexit done’. This attack on a representative institution was part of an international pattern of democratic backsliding during the 2010s. For the authors of this new book, understanding the internal dynamics of Parliament during the Brexit years forms part of an effort to ‘defend democracy and its institutions’.

Following the 2016 referendum, the Westminster parliament became the crucible of the eventual form of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU. With its shifting balance of forces, unwritten conventions, and arcane rules, the parliamentary arena shaped behaviours and created unintended consequences that a polarised electorate struggled to comprehend. Meg Russell and Lisa James’s impressive and meticulously researched book sets out in fine detail how and why this came to be, and offers a clear chronological explanation and thematic analysis of those difficult years.

Brexit was so difficult because it opened a question that had not been addressed in British politics for a long time: who exactly was in charge? The 2016 referendum ostensibly initiated a three-cornered contest for authority between Government, Parliament, and People, with the pro-Brexit press and the courts playing crucial supporting roles.