A decade after the Brexit Referendum, young people are still waiting on the benefits they were promised. In this blog, IF Intern, Maddy Spitzer, asks whether new reforms are finally good news.
Is the UK on its way back to the EU?
Last month marked the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum. A decade on, we are yet to see the gains that were promised. Living standards have fallen, economic growth has been sluggish, and public debt is at historic highs. Freed from Brussels bureaucracy, the British state still feels as powerless as ever. It is unsurprising that questions around Brexit remain central to UK politics.
In recent months, these questions have begun to shift policy. With the Labour government set to rejoin Erasmus and talks of a renewed youth mobility scheme, it is clear that the government is heading towards closer ties with the EU. There is pressure to go even further. Following his resignation, former Health Secretary Wes Streeting has called for the UK to rejoin the EU outright.
Young people stand to gain the most from these developments. The Erasmus scheme and Youth Mobility Plan will enable young people to work, live and study in the EU. And yet, can a visa scheme really undo a decade of lost opportunity?
Generation Remain
Young people made their opinion clear in the Brexit referendum of 2016. An overwhelming 73% of those aged 18-24 voted to remain, alongside 62% of those aged 25-34. In comparison, only 40% of those aged 65+ voted to remain. Of course, those under 18 were denied an opportunity to take part in the referendum altogether, despite the fact that they will live with the consequences for the longest.
In the time since, anti-Brexit sentiment amongst the young has hardened further. Recent polling from June 2026 revealed that only 9% of young people supported staying out of the EU.
Are young people to blame?
Commentators have previously labelled young people as apathetic non-voters, arguing that they cannot complain about being ignored if they do not vote.
And it is true that young people’s turnout for the Referendum was estimated to be only 36%. But if we estimate turnout as a percentage of registered voters turnout rises dramatically to 64%, only 8% below the national average.
Lower turnout in the referendum was therefore more reflective of structural barriers to registration than general apathy. Young people move far more frequently, whether because they live in insecure rented housing or because they split their time between term-time and home addresses as students. This makes it far harder to stay registered. Just 70% of 18-34year-olds are registered, compared to 97% of over-65s.
Why did young people favour Remain?
There were also differences behind voting intention. Those who voted “leave” were predominantly motivated by more abstract issues of “sovereignty”, EU bureaucracy, and control over borders. Meanwhile, remain voters were motivated by economic matters of jobs, prices, and investment.
For young voters in particular, an LSE study found that above all else, young people did not want to lose the benefits of EU membership, which guaranteed freedom of movement in Europe. Young people also feared Brexit would deepen the pressures of years of austerity already being felt.
In many ways, leave-voting older generations voted based on “luxury beliefs”. They were shielded from the economic costs of Brexit, so were able to vote based on other, often more abstract factors. Meanwhile, young people were voting on their own economic prospects, which will determine their living standards, access to jobs, and ability to build wealth in the years to come.
The cost of Brexit has fallen hardest on the young
So how has the decision to leave the EU affected the UK economy? Research by UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE) estimates that Brexit has caused UK GDP per capita to decline by 6-8%. Alongside this, higher import costs post-referendum have led to an estimated 3% increase in consumer prices.
Everyone will have suffered due to this lack of growth. But there is reason to believe young people will have felt this most acutely. IF previously found that under-30s today spend 70% of their weekly budget on essentials like rent and bills, compared to just 56% for over-65s.This is a 16 percentage point increase compared to 20 years ago. This leaves young households with far less for saving, leisure, or buying a home. Meanwhile, unemployment for young people has increased to 16.2%, up from 14.3% the year before. This is likely related to the lower labour productivity and less investment in business we have seen since Brexit.
In many ways, pensioners living standards have become untethered from economic growth. The triple-locked state pension and generous defined benefit pensions mean pensioners receive the same pay-out regardless of wider economic performance. Spending on older-age benefits has significantly increased since 2016, while youth services and working-age benefits have been cut. The UK’s wealth and assets, that are concentrated amongst older generations have continued to rise, while earnings, the primary source of income for the working-age population, have flatlined.
It is the young who have paid the price for the damaging effects of Brexit, not those who largely voted for it.
A change in attitudes?
Politicians have started to cottoned on. Keir Starmer’s recent speech in May, which focused on “putting Britain at the heart of Europe” shows that it might not be all doom and gloom for Britain’s youth. In reference to young people, Starmer stated that “Brexit snatched away their ability to work, to study, and to live easily in Europe.”
This comment came after the Labour government announced its decision to rejoin the Erasmus scheme, which, prior to Brexit, had enabled students to study at European universities without extra fees. This represents an encouraging turn for young people, granting them extensive academic opportunities and future skills.
Additionally, in recent months there have been talks within the UK government for a renewed “youth experience” scheme. This would entail a visa route for those aged 18-30 in both the UK and the EU. This would restore opportunities that were taken away from young people after Brexit, restoring their ability to live, work and study abroad.
Polling data reveals that this is not just popular among the young, with 59% of 18-34-year-olds supporting negotiations, but also among older generations, with 56% of those aged 65+ backing the scheme. Even 50% of those who voted to leave the EU are in favour. This shows that the shortcomings of Brexit are widely recognised across Britain, and that there is a broad public appetite to remedy them.
Cause for optimism?
This is a promising shift. The restored Erasmus scheme and proposed youth mobility negotiations speak directly to the freedom of movement in the EU that young people said they valued in 2016. For a generation that did not have a say in Brexit, these reforms are steps in the right direction.
Of course, EU alignment alone will not solve the country’s domestic issues such as the housing crisis, a rising tax burden and unfair tuition fees. Nor will they reverse the damage Brexit caused to young people’s economic prospects. But judged on what they can achieve, rather than what they lack, closer EU alignment represents a genuine step towards giving young people back some of what Brexit took away.
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Photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash