Brexit and Anti-Parliament Discourses among Conservative MPs (2016–2019). Issue 2 (30th November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Alexandre-Collier, Agnès
• Is Part Of: Parliamentary affairs. Volume 75:Issue 2(2022)
• Page Start: 239
• Page End: 262
• Publication Date: 2020-11-30
• Subjects: Boris Johnson -- Brexit -- Conservative Party -- Parliament -- populism -- Theresa May; Representative government and representation -- Periodicals; Legislative bodies -- Periodicals; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; Legislative bodies; Political science; Representative government and representation; Great Britain; Periodicals; Periodicals; 328.4105
• DOI: 10.1093/pa/gsaa060
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0031-2290

Abstract

Abstract: Brexit seems to have produced a new form of narrative in the Conservative Party in which some Conservative MPs brand themselves first and foremost as representatives of 'the people'. Following on from the 2016 EU referendum, a new discourse has become prominent in the party and has also been developed as a new critique of the British Parliament. An analysis of Hansard debates between July 2016 and December 2019 helps identify different forms of anti-Parliament narrative which denounce the paralysis of the legislative process as well as its anti-democratic and conspiratorial features. By doing so, they reveal a radical departure from the historic values of the Conservative party such as the 'veneration' of Parliament but question the claim that this may signal the surge of a new type of populism.