Brexit once galvanised anti-EU news organisations – three years later, support is waning

During the 2016 EU referendum campaign, newspapers and news websites were fairly clear about where they stood on the matter – with some more fanatical than others.

Enthusiasm for some of the more egregiously contentious campaign claims was notable, especially in the pro-Leave papers.

Once the referendum was done and dusted, if anything attitudes hardened. We saw the Daily Mail describe senior judges as “Enemies of the people” and The Daily Telegraph heckle 15 Remain-leaning Conservative MPs with the headline: “Brexit Mutineers”.

But just as views of Brexit have shifted in parliament and among the public, so they have in media circles, as journalists and editors try to work out what on earth is going on.

Two of the papers which previously backed hard Brexit, the Mail and the Daily Express, have undergone, respectively, changes in editorship and ownership. That has not turned them into fans of the EU, but tonally there has been a modest shift.

Even putting that to one side, it is obvious that pro-Leave newspapers are beginning to see the reality of a relatively hopeless situation. The milk and honey Brexit that was fondly imagined during the referendum campaign and in the months afterwards, has been consigned to history. It’s now May’s deal, no-deal or no Brexit (probably). Even if a few diehard Tory MPs haven’t grasped that yet, no political editor in the land would be so naive.

This is why the right-leaning populist press (the Mail, Express and Sun) have all effectively fallen in behind the prime minister’s deal – even if that means, in the Sun’s case, calling for the PM herself to resign. Whether that reflects their readers’ views is an interesting question.

In the end, no mainstream news organisation – however ideologically pure its editorial position on a given subject – can ignore the reality on the ground, which is why pro-Leave newspapers are having to cut their cloth on Brexit.

As for The Independent’s view, in the period after the 2016 referendum it felt right that the government should be given the chance to get on with delivering Brexit. When that process became hideously bogged down last summer, we launched our Final Say campaign.

Eight months on, and with parliament at a stickier impasse than ever, our call for another referendum looks increasingly like the most sensible way ahead.

Yours,

Will Gore

Executive editor