Boris Johnson has called on Britain to “stop fearing the freedoms gained through Brexit” as the country approaches the 10th anniversary of the referendum.
In a video message released ahead of the milestone, the former prime minister said the UK still has not fully taken advantage of leaving the European Union and said he remains “more passionate than ever” that the 2016 vote was the right choice.
The intervention comes ten years after 17.4 million people voted to leave the EU in what remains the largest democratic mandate in British political history.
“Ten years ago, the people of this country voted to leave the EU in the biggest expression of popular will in our history,” Johnson said, adding: “And of course, I believe more passionately than ever that we were right.”
In his message, he strongly defended Brexit while pushing back against calls from some politicians and campaigners for closer alignment with Brussels or a return to EU membership.
He questioned whether voters would really want to give up powers and financial contributions in exchange for rejoining.
“Do you really want to hand over around £15 billion a year to Brussels when we are struggling to spend enough on defence?” he said.
“Do you want to give up the legal power to decide who comes into this country and from where, and return that authority to Brussels?”
Johnson also claimed that rejoining the EU would mean abandoning the pound in favour of the euro.
“Do you want to scrap the pound for the euro, because that is the price of joining the EU?” he asked.
He argued that many of Britain’s current challenges would not be solved by closer ties with Europe.
“Above all, do you want to spend another ten years arguing about this when none of the big problems facing the country—high tax, welfare pressures, heavy regulation, low skills, weak infrastructure and poor planning—can be fixed by going back into the EU,” he said. “Most would only get worse.”
Johnson insisted Brexit has already delivered benefits by allowing the UK to take its own approach in key policy areas.
“Brexit has given us the ability to do things differently and better,” he said, pointing to changes in areas such as gene editing, artificial intelligence, animal welfare rules and VAT policy, as well as removing tariffs on imported goods.
He said Britain has been able to cut “thousands of pointless tariffs,” including on products not produced domestically, helping reduce costs for consumers.
Linking Brexit to recent national challenges, he said the UK’s independence had strengthened its response to crises.
“Because we’ve been able to diverge, we had a stronger policy on Ukraine,” he said. “We had the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe, the quickest economic rebound after Covid, and the fastest exit from lockdown—months ahead of many European countries.”
He added that the biggest gain from Brexit was restoring democratic control to elected politicians.
“Taking back control restored the right of people in this country to elect and remove those who make laws in our name,” he said.
Closing his message, Johnson said that freedom to make laws independently should be embraced rather than feared.
“That freedom is priceless,” he said. “We should stop fearing it, use it properly, and move forward together.”
