Manchester had the strongest vote to stay in the EU in the north-west, with 60.4% voting to stay. But after a week of chaos in Westminster there was little sign of schadenfreude among the city’s remainers.
“It’s a farce isn’t it?” said Michelle Hinds, self-medicating against Brexit with the help of a glass of wine on Friday afternoon. “To be totally honest, I’ve switched off from it. I voted to remain and I was completely devastated at the referendum result. I never thought for a second we would leave.”
Hinds, a 47-year-old client services manager, is the daughter of an Irishman. She had put together the forms for her whole family to apply for Irish passports but never sent them off amid the uncertainty over whether Brexit will actually happen. A committed Conservative voter, she has a certain amount of sympathy for Theresa May: “I think she was given a poisoned chalice and she can’t win.” But she is hardly full of praise for the prime minister either. “There’s no one I would vote for PM from either party. It’s all turned into a pantomime.”
Sean Byrne, also 47, works in commercial property. He had just spent a few hours reading the paper in Starbucks, bringing himself up to speed on the negotiations, and was still confused about what was going on. “Every 10 minutes another minister is resigning and nobody seems to know what the right thing is to do. There are such conflicting messages,” he said. “No one seems to want to take the decision.”
Of May, he said: “You have to respect her for staying the course. No one else wanted to do the job and I don’t think anyone else would have got a better deal. But she can’t even control her own party.” He thinks the politicians should stop fighting and plan for a post-Brexit Britain: “My personal view is that if we come out of it we should be like Singapore and slash corporation tax to 10% to offset the impact of tariffs on business, plus any trade disadvantages. That’s an idea anyway.”
Sam Hibberd, 20, was also struggling to fathom what was going on. “I voted to stay in because my family told me it would be easier when we went on holiday and stuff. You hear about it all the time: Brexit this, Brexit that, but I don’t understand it all. I do think we will leave in the next two years but I don’t think we will be better off. It’s more hassle than it’s worth.”
Visiting from Cork in Ireland, 25-year-old nurse Kim O’Keefe believes not enough people in the UK are worrying about the implications for her country. “I don’t think there’s enough emphasis on the Irish border question in the British press and I don’t like the feeling that we are going backwards, not forwards. I was a baby when the Good Friday agreement was signed but we learned all about it in school and my parents remember it.”
Taking a break in the Spinningfield commercial district, three healthcare workers vaped on a bench, declining to be named because of their employer. One, 42, said that he voted to remain and his brother voted to leave. “My brother is firm in his position. Me, less so. I think that the EU is playing hardball and isn’t willing to give any concessions. If it came to another referendum I would still vote to stay but now I can see the other side.”