In the confines of the Conservative party conference, Theresa May’s call “to change the direction of our nation” was greeted with rapturous applause. In the outside world, the vision of post-Brexit Britain that the prime minister went on to describe may have pleased her target audience. But it drew a tough response from European leaders, dismayed the City of London and appalled much of the wider world.
This was not primarily about the substance of her proposals, although these imply a clean break with the single market. It was because her rhetoric left the impression that Britain’s political culture is changing in more profound and troubling ways.
Mrs May has long made it clear she would prioritise controls on immigration over access to EU markets. This week, she gave further clarity, setting a date to trigger formal exit talks and stating that the UK will not remain under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. These criteria for Brexit, which effectively rule out remaining in the single market, may be unwelcome to many in business but they are not unexpected. More telling was her dismissal of liberal-minded “international elites”, coupled with a proposal to make companies publish a tally of foreign employees in order to “flush out” any failing to recruit locally.