How Well Do You Remember Brexit? Take Robert Hutton's Quiz

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5 min read1 hr

It’s 10 years since Britain’s momentous decision to, according to your taste, throw off the shackles of European oppression or make it harder to sell things to France.

Perhaps the morning of 24 June 2016 found you looking, as David Cameron did, like a man whose political dreams were shattered. Or perhaps, like Boris Johnson, you were triumphantly wondering what the hell you were supposed to do now.

But how much can you remember of the intervening decade? Do you know your alternative arrangements from your Windsor framework? It’s time to find out with our epic quiz (answers below). Will the winner get prosecco, a BMW or £350m a week? That’ll come out in the ensuing negotiations. Just remember that the moment you finish the quiz, you hold all the cards.

In 2006, what did David Cameron tell his party off for doing while parents “worried about getting the kids to school”?
Which party’s 2010 manifesto promised “an in/out referendum the next time a British government signs up for fundamental change in the relationship between the UK and the EU”?
Cameron’s 2013 address promising a referendum (poignantly, it was delivered in the early morning, while parents were worrying about getting their kids to school) became known as the Bloomberg Speech, but the company’s London headquarters were a second-choice venue. In which city was the speech originally scheduled to be given?
Which party’s 2015 manifesto proclaimed: “We say: yes to the Single Market”?
The referendum campaign saw Nigel Farage leading an armada of fishing boats up the Thames. Which pop star raised his own fleet to intercept him?
The timing of the exit process was controversial from the start:
A Who said the morning after the vote: “Article 50 has to be invoked now”?
B Which party said during the 2017 election that it had been a mistake to trigger Article 50 at all?
In 2017, which party…
A …pledged to “unite the country around a Brexit deal that works for every community in Britain”?
B …promised “a new deep and special partnership with the EU”?
C …said it would negotiate a Brexit agreement and “we will put that deal to a vote of the British people in a referendum, with the alternative option of staying in the EU”?
By 2019, which party promised…
A …to “ensure that Northern Ireland’s businesses and producers enjoy unfettered access to the rest of the UK”?
B …to put a deal “to a public vote alongside the option to remain”?
C …to “stop this mess, revoke Article 50 and stay in the EU”?
The UK Independence Party was crucial to Britain’s decision to leave:
A How many leaders did it have over the course of 2016?
B How many of them were Nigel Farage?
C How many of them are still party members?
What was the name of the book published by Nick Clegg in October 2017, after he lost his seat in Parliament?
A How to Get Rich.
B How to Stop Brexit.
C How to Make Facebook Ethical.
The first two Brexit secretaries were David Davis and Dominic Raab. Who was the third?
Raab had been a passionate supporter of Brexit, but in 2018 he revealed he’d underestimated the importance to British trade of what?
In 2019, a group of 11 Labour and Conservative MPs announced they were forming a new anti-Brexit party. It became known as Change UK: The Independent Group. Nine months later, how many of them were still in the party?
In March 2019, MPs were given “indicative votes”, the chance to show which of eight options they would be willing to support. How many passed?
Dominic Raab said Theresa May’s deal was “worse than staying in”. Johnson called it “the worst of both worlds”. Jacob Rees-Mogg said Britain would be “not so much a vassal state any more as a slave state”. How did they all ultimately vote on the deal?
In September 2019, Rees-Mogg described something as a “constitutional coup”? Was it:
A Asking the Queen to prorogue Parliament in order to stop MPs from debating Brexit.
B The Supreme Court ruling that the prorogation had been unlawful.
Who said, in 2017, “If Brexit is a disaster I will go and live abroad” and then, in 2023, “Brexit has failed”? And are they now living abroad?
What, in 2018, did May insist that no British prime minister could agree to?
What, in 2019, did Johnson assure business owners he had not agreed to?
Were either of them right?

Answers

1   “Banging on about Europe”
2   The Liberal Democrats
3   Amsterdam
4   The Conservatives
5   Bob Geldof
6   A Jeremy Corbyn; B UKIP
7   A Labour; B Conservatives; C Liberal Democrats
8   A Conservatives; B Labour; C Liberal Democrats
9   A four; B two; C none
10 B
11 Steve Barclay, though we only have his word for it
12 Dover
13 Five
14 None
15 For it
16 B
17 Nigel Farage. No.
18 A border in the Irish Sea
19 A border in the Irish Sea
20 No

Score
0-5: no deal; 6-10: vassal state; 11-15: Norway; 16-20: Canada; 21-25: customs union; 25-28: bespoke free-trade agreement.