After years of denying the downsides of Britain’s split from the European Union, the Brexit taboo is starting to lift in the governing Conservative Party and the country’s right-wing press.
Brexit has caused a "calamitous loss of international standing” and six years of "damage,” "policy confusion” and "ineptitude,” a columnist for the traditionally Brexit-backing Telegraph newspaper wrote this weekend. The claims of so-called Project Fear — a derogatory term given to pre-Brexit warnings about economic harm and disruption — "have turned out to be overwhelmingly correct,” the Telegraph column said.
The piece’s verdict, which grouped Brexit with the recent market turmoil that has shattered the Conservative Party’s reputation, coincides with a growing openness among Tory MPs to acknowledge Britain’s now-fragile relationship with the EU and a desire to rebuild ties. With Prime Minister Liz Truss in so much difficulty, the U.K. is in the mood for a reset.