James Tilley - Tribal Politics: How Brexit Divided Britain

The tenth anniversary of the EU referendum is fast approaching and many will be focused on how Brexit has, or has not, changed the economic and political world. But what if the most important change was not to institutions, political parties and the economy, but to us? This lecture series explores how the referendum, and its aftermath, sparked a form of ‘tribal politics’ that reshaped how people saw themselves, each other and the wider world. The first lecture looks at how the referendum created two powerful and enduring political identities in Britain: Leavers and Remainers. Why did an issue of such little interest to so many people suddenly become the key way that people identified themselves and others? The second lecture turns to the consequences of this transformation. Why did Leavers and Remainers dislike, look down on and discriminate against people simply because they belonged to the other group? And how did those brand-new political identities come to change our views of not just other people, but reality itself? The final lecture explores the resilience and future of tribal politics in Britain. Why did some people embrace their identity so fervently while others did not, and what does this tell us about both the future of British politics but also political divides in other countries at other times?

James Tilley is a Professor of Politics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. He is the author of two books and numerous articles that investigate how we form political attitudes and make political choices. His latest book, co-authored with Sara Hobolt, is Tribal Politics: How Brexit Divided Britain and will be published by Oxford University Press in March 2026. He regularly makes documentaries for BBC Radio 4 on all aspects of political attitudes, from primate politics to conspiracy theories, the most recent being a five-part series titled ‘The kids are alt-right?’.

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