Brexit has made MPs more assertive, undermined the prime minister’s authority and placed the devolution settlement under threat, a report by an independent think tank has found.
The Institute for Government report, ‘The Brexit effect’, published last week, assesses the impact of Brexit. It finds that key departments such as Defra and the Home Office are bigger now than they have been at any point in the last decade, as more staff have been drafted in to deal with Brexit, but existing work has been put on hold to deal with the UK’s departure.
Ministerial resignations have become commonplace while MPs have banded together and traditional party discipline has buckled, the report found, with more Commons votes decided by a margin of less than 1% in this Parliamentary session than in the previous 10 years.
Meanwhile, the devolved administrations have felt side-lined for much of the Brexit process, exposing fundamental problems with the 20-year-old settlement. Tensions could rise further when decisions are made on how to reallocate EU powers and funding.
Far from former Prime Minister David Cameron’s ‘bonfire of the quangos’, the report finds that at least three quangos are guaranteed and many more are expanding. Finally, according to the report, any financial benefit gained as the UK stops paying into the EU budgets is likely to be overshadowed by the economic impact of leaving.
Bronwen Maddox, director at the Institute for Government, said: ‘Brexit will have an enduring effect on our government, whatever the outcome.
‘It has fundamentally changed the shape of the civil service, the functioning of Parliament and how government operates. Thirty-three months since the EU Referendum, the Brexit effect on government is considerable and far from over.’
