Barack Obama’s private reaction to the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union has been revealed for the first time as part of a new book on the referendum.
A decade of Brexit
The 23rd June 2026 will mark ten years since the fateful day when 51.9% of people decided Britain was better off ditching the world’s biggest trading bloc.
As this landmark anniversary approaches, it’s a good time too look back on what we’ve gained from ditching our European partners over the last decade.
The answer of course is very little. As the years have gone on, the lies of Brexiteers have been exposed and the Conservatives’ disastrous handling of the process of leaving the EU has been laid bare.
Brexit has caused huge economic damage to the British economy, led to a huge spike in immigration and continues to define politics to this day, creating one of the great dividing lines in our society.
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Plenty predicted this would be the case, such as the experts that Michael Gove infamously told us should be ignored. Someone else who called exactly how Brexit would play out for Britain was Barack Obama.
‘The UK has f***ed itself’
It’s safe to say that the US president at the time of the vote had no doubt about what the United Kingdom had done to itself by voting for Brexit.
According to Lord Kim Darroch, Britain’s ambassador in the US in 2016, Obama thought the UK had “f***ed” itself with the vote.
Writing in Sir Anthony Seldon’s book, The Brexit Effect, Lord Darroch recalled an account from a member Obama’s close entourage two days after the referendum when asked for the President’s view, the Independent reports.
He wrote: “‘He thinks you’ve completely f***ed yourselves.’ This was Washington DC in June 2016, a couple of days after the Leave victory, lunch with one of Barack Obama’s inner circle, and his response to my question about how Obama had viewed the outcome.
“My guest continued: ‘We just don’t understand why you would call a referendum you didn’t need to hold without being absolutely certain of getting the right answer. What happens now you’ve blown yourselves up?'”
Lord Darroch said that senior figures in the Obama administration were “horrified” by Brexit.
They weren’t the only ones…