London Chinatown, Anthony Devlin/PA Wire/Press Association Images. All rights reserved."It is all about which side of globalisation you're on," a friend – who I have always regarded as to the left of the UK Labour party – recently told me. "Those who haven't gained from globalisation want Brexit. Those who have benefited from globalisation want Remain, such as migrant workers." This is how pervasively toxic Brexit's anti-migration argument has been, that even some of the trade unionists on the left aren't immune to it.
There is no doubt that the referendum debate has been manufactured and dominated by the right throughout, where migration is their central issue. The extent to which how fear of an imagined threat has been intensified by the Leave campaign is evident in everything from the increasing expression of anti-immigrant sentiments in predominantly white areas, Nigel Farage’s anti-migrant “Breaking Point” poster, through to the mainstreaming of ‘take our country back’-style rhetoric.
‘Lexit’ has been given no room in the mainstream media, and its class analysis has not in any way influenced public opinion. And it's deeply worrying to see a section of trade unionists in the Leave camp expressing ideas that bear some resemblance to those on the right. Some of the 'Trade Unionists against the EU' campaigners, for instance, have adopted Brexit's anti-migration and border control language.
