Pro-EU activist Steve Bray shows what many people think: With Brexit, the British have shot themselves in the foot.Image: keystone
The 10 million initiative is intended to reduce immigration to Switzerland. This is exactly what the British sought to do when they left the EU in 2016. Things went terribly wrong.
May 31, 2026, 10:00 a.mMay 31, 2026, 10:00 a.m
Great Britain has never been an easy-care member of the European Union. There was always friction, for example over payments into the shared budget. On the right-wing fringe of the Conservative Party, Brussels became an enemy, even though it was precisely the Conservative Party that had sought accession in 1973. In 2016 the hour came for the EU opponents.
Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron promised them to hold a referendum on EU membership ahead of his success in the 2015 general election. He had once rejected it, but as head of government he mutated into a supporter. It didn’t help: on June 23, 2016, 52 percent voted for Brexit.
After the Brexit defeat, Prime Minister David Cameron announced his resignation.Image: EPA/EPA
Ten years have passed since then, which has taken its toll on the United Kingdom. The Brexiteers’ slogan “Take Back Control” was an empty promise. Although there were new trade agreements, they could not compensate for the loss of the EU market. The British economy suffered up to eight percent of gross domestic product (GDP)..
Constant chaos in Westminster
A kind of permanent chaos has developed in the British political system, which is actually geared towards clear conditions. Since David Cameron’s resignation after the Brexit bankruptcy, five successors have taken over at No. 10 Downing Street in London. And number six could soon move in.
Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has been in office since 2024, is standing after the party’s recent electoral defeats with your back to the wall. Hardly anyone is betting that it can last for a long time. Starmer had fought Brexit, but critics like former Health Minister Wes Streeting believe he is too timid when it comes to rapprochement with the EU.
Majority wants to return to the EU
Streeting wants to “inherit” Starmer and promises a return of Great Britain to the EU. The majority of his compatriots are behind him. For years, surveys have shown that more than 50 percent of Britons want to reverse the withdrawal. They have realized that virtually none of the full-bodied promises have been fulfilled.
Wes Streeting wants to become prime minister and lead Britain back into the EU.Image: keystone
This is particularly true for the main reason why a narrow majority voted for “Leave”: anger over the high level of immigration caused by the free movement of people with the EU. This creates a connection to the vote on the SVP initiative “No 10 million Switzerland!”. It also aims to terminate the free movement agreement.
Feeling of loss of control
In the kingdom, migration after the EU’s eastward expansion in 2004 caused resentment. Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair waived the protective clauses that were possible at the time because the British economy needed workers. Around 800,000 people came to the island from Poland alone. This created a feeling of loss of control among the population.
The parallels to the current debate in Switzerland are unmistakable. The Brexiteers around Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage used the resentment for their campaign. But after Brexit it became apparent that there was no decrease in either asylum or labor migration. The opposite happened: in both cases the numbers exploded.
asylum
Boat migration across the English Channel is a constant nuisance in the UK. She has since Brexit not decreased, but increased. In 2025 more than 40,000 people came. This is not least because the kingdom also left the EU asylum system with Brexit. This means the government no longer has access to EU databases.
Since Brexit, more and more migrants are trying to cross the English Channel by boat.Image: keystone
“Rejected asylum seekers have one last chance to try again in the UK,” said the migration expert Madeleine Sumption from the University of Oxford the NZZ. Justice Minister Beat Jans also warns against this, because Switzerland could be at risk if the free movement of people were to be terminated lose participation in the Schengen-Dublin system.
There is no direct connection, but the two agreements are politically linked. A termination of Schengen/Dublin by the EU is therefore a conceivable scenario. There is great concern in the Justice and Police Department (FDJP), and the British experience with boat migrants proves him right.
Work
The development in regular immigration was even more extreme. After Brexit, Prime Minister Boris Johnson wanted to regulate them by the state, which is also what the SVP is calling for in the current voting campaign. A points system like in Australia or Canada was introduced. To get a visa you had to earn the equivalent of at least 28,000 francs per year.
However, there were numerous exceptions for shortage sectors such as nursing, construction or IT. As a result, the exact opposite of what was hoped for with Brexit happened. In 2015, the year before the referendum, net immigration was around 330,000 people. In 2022 and 2023 it tripled to over 900,000.
After Brexit, migration from third countries has exploded.Image: BBC
Because many EU citizens left the kingdom at the same time, the workforce came from third countries such as India, Nigeria or the Philippines. And the end of the unbureaucratic free movement of people led, according to the NZZ, “to British employers beginning to recruit more aggressively”. This is exactly what Switzerland should think about.
Brexit therefore had a counterproductive effect. People talk about a “Boriswave”, a reference to the ex-prime minister who helped the country leave the EU. In recent years the screw has been tightened, for example when it comes to family reunification. As a result, immigration fell to 2015 levels.
The SVP would also like to focus on family reunification. In Great Britain, however, according to the NZZ, its restrictions have resulted in retirement homes having increasing difficulties in recruiting nursing staff. And because of more restrictive visas for students, British universities have to make do with less fee money.
Conclusion
Ten years after the memorable vote, the outcome of Brexit is sobering. More migrants arrived instead of fewer, the British economy is barely getting off the ground, national debt is higher than it has been in 60 years, and the British had to make painful concessions to the EU, in fishing or on the border with Ireland.
This is also the conclusion reached by a study by the newly founded “Swiss Perspectives in Europe” foundation, which was presented in Bern on Thursday. When it came to Brexit, some unrealistic assumptions were made: “In particular, they overestimated their own negotiating power and underestimated the EU’s own interests.”
“There was a lack of a plan to implement Brexit,” said European law expert Tobias Lock from Maynooth University in Ireland. He wrote the study together with Jan Atteslander, the long-time head of foreign trade policy at Economiesuisse. The parallels with Switzerland are unmistakable: after the framework agreement was abandoned, the Federal Council also had no plan B.
Nevertheless, Keir Starmer’s government is taking inspiration from Switzerland. According to the “Economist” it tends to to a kind of dynamic adoption of EU law. And thus the concept that has become the biggest battle zone in the Bilateral III, which was negotiated as a “replacement” for the framework agreement.
The comparison may be flawed because the British do not know direct democracy in the way we understand it. Nevertheless, Switzerland must serve as a role model. In Brussels, enthusiasm for such a deal is manageable, especially because of the red lines defined by the London government: no to the internal market, the customs union and the free movement of people.
Keir Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen want to get closer again. The only question is how?Image: keystone
At least the latter is difficult to maintain, according to the Economist. The business magazine gives clear advice to a “courager Labor Prime Minister” than Starmer: Instead of reversing the EU exit, he should strive for better access to the internal market “à la Suisse” in return for the free movement of people.
In effect, this amounts to our bilateral path, with or without dynamic legal adoption. Looking at the last ten years with the messed up Brexit and our often equally messed up European debate, you can’t help but smile.