The Atlantic: It’s a Very Awkward Time to Be a British Lawmaker in Europe

But representing Britain in an organization as it’s preparing to leave hasn’t been easy. When I met with Gill at the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool this week, she told me that her last two years as a British member of European Parliament (MEP) have been some of the most difficult—and the most frustrating. “The entire process has been a disaster in terms of not just the British image abroad and the way people view us, but also in relation to just doing what we used to be very good at, which was getting our key message across to all of our representatives,” she said. Prior to Brexit, British lawmakers in Brussels might have known what the U.K.’s positions are on various issue areas. But now, with the seemingly constant infighting in Westminster over what kind of deal the U.K. should strike with the EU (or whether it needs one at all), there is no such clarity. “People would ask me, ‘What exactly does the U.K. want?’” Gill said. “And frankly, for two years I haven’t been able to give them an answer.” [...]

Gill said this type of rhetoric hasn’t helped the U.K. in its negotiations with the EU. “We’re in a difficult negotiation and you’ve got these Brexiteers who are offending all the people who we are negotiating with on a regular basis in parliament,” she said. “It’s quite different experiences, depending on where you’re at in terms of [being] pro-Europe or anti-Europe. If you’re anti-Europe, you don’t really care what goes on—you’re against everything anyway.” [...]

When I asked Gill about calls within the conference for an option to remain in the EU, she told me she was “bemused” by the reaction there. “I never imagined that I would be walking into Labour Party conference and there’d be that many big European flags flying,” she said. When she was first elected to the European Parliament in 1999, she said, Britons weren’t as opposed to the EU—but that sentiment began to change after 2000. “Looking back, I think we should have fought harder not to let Europe be sidelined,” she added. “It’s only when you’re about to lose something that you start to appreciate what it was.”

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