Inside out: The UK press, Brexit and strategic populist ventriloquism

Abstract

This article examines how and when populist discourses were mobilised within the 2016 UK European Union (EU) Referendum campaign, by examining the specific temporal conjunctions between the changing strategy of the official ‘Vote Leave’ campaign, British national newspaper reporting of the Referendum and shifts in public opinion. Our analysis shows that Vote Leave only started to utilise anti-elitist and exclusionary populist rhetoric at the mid-point of the campaign, in response to constricting political opportunities, but by so doing transformed the dynamic of the Referendum. We term this an example of ‘strategic populist ventriloquism’, where elite politicians appropriate the language of insurgency for political advantage, and argue that current conceptual frameworks on media and populism need to be broadened to accommodate these occasions.

The Brexit deal and UK fisheries—has reality matched the rhetoric?

“…The one exception came in late 2020 when UK fish processors and fish exporters began to publicly warn of the business losses in the fisheries sector should a "no-deal Brexit" take place (Fishing News 2020). This distinction may reflect what Smith et al (2020) found about populist discourses in the EU Referendum campaign that were mobilised, crafted, and amplified by key protagonists in and by the Vote Leave campaign at the end of May 2016 to shift focus to exclusionary and anti-elitist discourses.…”

The Paradox of Brexit and the Consequences of Taking Back Control

“…Research on "democratic innovations highlight forms of participation, such as direct democracy and deliberative forums that complement representative institution" [24] (p. 877). Previous studies have revealed that the motives for demanding referenda could either be a manifestation of a populist wave sweeping across many nations [25,26] or instrumental preferences [24]. Previous scholars analysed whether citizens support referenda for intrinsic reasons or because they are instrumentally motivated [24].…”

“…The Brexit referendum has been interpreted as a pre-legislative referendum, rather than a post-legislative one (see report on Independent Commission on Referendums) [6] and "populist ventriloquism" [26] (p. 21). Some scholars linked Brexit to the manifestation of crisis in the global order [31].…”

“…Populists present themselves as champions of 'the people' against 'the elite' [38]. The relationship between populism and referendums has been considered in several recent publications [24][25][26]39]. Therefore, Brexit and the decision to leave the EU have been attributed to the manifestation of right-wing populism [23].…”

Disinformation and Narratives

“…The reference to the Euromyths story is followed by evoking anger against elite politicians ("somebody's fat cats […] lobbying the Government") that do not understand the suffering of the people ("what do they know the impact of immigration on school places, and hospital waiting lists, and GP service, they know nothing about it"), while linking the detached, uncaring elite to the "threat" and "burden" of immigration, a topos of right-wind populism (Jager & Walgrave, 2007;Wodak, 2015). A recent empirical study by Smith, Deacon, and Downey (2020) that examined the temporal conjunction between the turn of the Vote Leave campaign to populist discourses and the national media coverage of immigration that the media followed the politicians, and that only the campaign's "prioritisation of immigration immediately forced the topic up the national press agenda, regardless of newspapers' political stance on EU membership" (Smith et al, 2020, p. 13). Looking back to the 1990s, though, reveals that the narrative structures in which Johnson conveyed the populist message were formed as he adopted the way how the European Community was covered in Euromyths news stories.…”