It has been almost a decade since Britain voted to leave the European Union and yet many of the underlying factors behind that vote have still not been addressed, a Church of England bishop has argued.
Philip North, the Bishop of Blackburn, said that many leave voters were motivated by concerns that national sovereignty and pride had been eroded and that the Church has a role to play in helping people rediscover national pride.
Speaking to The Express, North said that many in the Church falsely claimed that leave voters were primarily motivated by racism or anger. His own diocese voted heavily in favour of leaving the EU, prompting North to talk to leavers and understand where they were coming from.
“At the time of the debate, I remember a lot of criticism, particularly coming from Church circles of those who voted for Brexit, giving false motives for that vote. Some were saying it was simply a xenophobic, racist vote, others saying it was a protest vote, an angry vote,” he said.
“What I saw was actually people voting for a particular vision of nation. They saw that, as they understood it, national identity had been eroded over a number of years by a kind of globalist EU project, by other pressures and forces.”
However, North also said that the root concerns of leave voters about national identity had largely gone unaddressed.
“I think I see almost the same division now. I see it lived out and played out in different ways. But I still see many people who feel embarrassed to speak about pride in nationhood, pride in the Royal Family and in the Armed Forces, as if that is somehow a language of the past,” he said.
The Diocese of Blackburn covers most of the county of Lancashire in north-west England, which widely voted Leave.
North has previously spoken with regret about his failure to raise the issue of predominantly Pakistani Muslim rape gangs.
He said that fears of disrupting community relations, combined with a disconnect between the Church and the working classes prevented him from speaking up.
“I am doing some serious reflection about my fear-driven silence when it comes to grooming gangs. I hope other church leaders will do the same.”