Brexit and the Future of the United Kingdom

This paper aims to assess the significance of Brexit for the future of the UK as a unitary state and to identify various possible outcome to the future of the UK. The first part provides an overview of the current status of Scotland and Northern Ireland in the UK and the differences between both cases. The second part of the article assesses the significance of the EU for the devolved administrations and analyses key party responses to the Brexit debate in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In conclusion the impact of Brexit on the future of the UK as unitary state is assessed.

Paper prepared for the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), June 2016. Presented at the conference on “The British Europe Question and the Future of the United Kingdom”, Rome, 18 July 2016.