The UK’s Brexit dream is dead

British voters head to the polls Thursday for their first general election outside the European Union. But in so many ways, the Brexit dream has already died.

All the key Vote Leave characters have left the stage. Five years after winning a landslide election Boris Johnson is out of parliament, making millions from speeches and newspaper columns. Michael Gove has quit politics rather than suffer life in opposition. Dominic Cummings spends his time writing blogs about Dostoevsky, TikTok and the CIA.

As the architects of Britain’s departure from the EU contemplate a decade out of power, the country they envisaged during the 2016 referendum campaign looks further away than ever.

Radical plans to tear EU regulations off Britain’s statute books en masse have already been abandoned. The benefits of buccaneering free trade agreements (FTAs) have proved elusive. Britain's public services, far from receiving a promised boost, have in many cases almost stopped working. The number of people moving to Britain from abroad is higher than ever.

It’s not what advocates of Leave had in mind. And there are good reasons to suspect that a Brexit high-water mark has now been reached.

Keir Starmer’s Labour Party — seemingly on the verge of winning a historic majority in the July 4 election — has pledged to leave the current Brexit settlement largely intact. Ardent Remainers hoping Britain might re-enter the EU under his leadership are likely to be disappointed. Labour's slogan is “Make Brexit Work.”