Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator (who must be beloved of Brexiteers since he made their dream happen), summed up a confusion about the United Kingdom that persists within the British Isles and abroad.
“Opening negotiation to rejoin the EU,” he told Cathy Newman on Sky News, on 5 November 2026 “will be the sovereign choice of the UK people”.
This word “sovereignty” is used by politicians and media pundits in a loose way which fails to distinguish between “the sovereignty of the UK” and the “sovereignty of the people of the UK”.
The people, as I make clear on this website, are not sovereign, neither technically nor in actuality. They are not citizens with equal political rights.
The UK parliament is sovereign within the constraints of the so-called constitutional monarchy and while the people contribute an element of democracy to the political system they cannot be described as “sovereign” ie with the acknowledge inalienable right to decide all matters that concern them.
There are a great many political issues about which the people are not consulted and many more in which they are asked for their consent in unsatisfactory ways: first-past-the-post, two-party general elections and the infamous Brexit referendum.
These processes should not be confused with the exercise of sovereignty.
M. Barnier later corrected himself: negotiations with the EU would be a sovereign choice “of the UK”, he said, ie a decision to be made by politicians, special advisers, civil servants and lobbying interests with a “constitutional” nod from the monarchy.
The London-based elites will, as ever, justify their actions in whichever way that suits them (party manifesto, general election, another ill-devised referendum or simply, as is often the case, a decree from on high using the reserve powers). They will no doubt rhetorically claim a mandate from the citizenry for whatever course of action they take but they will not be acting on the sovereign instruction of the UK people.
To expand on this point you might want to read my post, “Me, the People” or read the chapters of the Cavalier Constitution starting from the home page.
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