Ten years on, I’d still make the case for leaving the EU. On reflection I’m proud that a majority of voters valued democratic accountability over short-term practical and economic advantages. I regret that Leave supporters were labelled old, stupid, little Englanders. This was about identity, community and belonging. It’s better to acknowledge that this is something we all need, rather than sneer. Could we have taken a more pro-active part in shaping subsequent events? The government of the day called the referendum, and the government of the day owned the outcome. Arguably something like Change Britain might have come into being immediately after the referendum, but practically it’s hard to see how the cross-party nature of the organisation could have been maintained, or indeed financed. The EU referendum could have been planned better both before and after the votes were counted. Professor Alan Renwick at UCL convened a group of politicians, academics and practitioners to reflect on what might be considered good practice in the future. Direct participatory democracy can unleash forces which become difficult to reign in, even in mature parliamentary democracies.

Our SW1 insurgency was bolstered by the People’s Pledge, a cross-party campaign for a referendum, launched in 2011 by Daniel Hodson, John Mills, Mark Seddon, Dan Hannan, myself and others. It effectively pressured MPs in marginal seats by organising local referendums, pushing them to support a national vote. I saw its impact firsthand at a drinks party in David Cameron’s Downing Street flat, where an irate MP confronted me about the campaign’s activity in her constituency. My suggestion that she sign the pledge sparked a scene. (Ironically, this now-former MP later framed her parliamentary legacy as helping secure Brexit, another case of selective memory.) In a move that would prove significant in the long run, Boris Johnson, then the London Mayor, had signed the People’s Pledge at one of our street stalls in Romford. We had not only mainstreamed the idea of a referendum, but had been able to do so because we had taken control of the Eurosceptic movement inside Westminster. Once Cameron had conceded holding a referendum, it was what was happening with Euroscepticism outside Westminster that became of greater concern.