Loughborough University London’s Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance have created a series of mini-lectures that discuss the effects of Covid-19 on a national and global scale. The lectures have been distributed to students providing weekly video content that pose pivotal questions and encourage students to consider the implications of a global pandemic on politics and the economy.

Dr Tim Oliver: Brexit means Brexit despite Covid-19

Boris Johnson might have won in the December 2019 UK General Election campaign with the slogan ‘Get Brexit Done’. In reality, however, it was a case of ‘Get Brexit Started.’ The UK’s withdrawal at the end of January 2020 was more the end of the beginning of Brexit than the actual end of it. No surprise then that it looked like Brexit would continue dominating UK politics. Covid-19 soon displaced it from the headlines. Brexit, however, has not gone away. Lots remains to be negotiated and Covid-19 has made things more complex. Even a No Deal Brexit, which has grown more likely, won’t ‘get Brexit done’. What Brexit means remains deeply contested in both debate and practice. 

Dr Tim Oliver contemplates how COVID-19 has slowed down Brexit negotiations, conversations and decisions as we approach the end of the beginning of the UK’s exit from the European Union. Dr Oliver poses the question of politics or economics; which will drive what happens to the UK?

Watch the video

To find out more about the Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance, please visit our website.