“WHAT FREEDOM? IT GAVE US NOTHING GAHHHHHHHH."
The Daily Express didn’t earn the nickname ‘the Brexpress’ for no reason. But if any reminder were needed as to why, its front page on February 2 provided it in abundance, and promptly became an object of ridicule.
“PM wants to ‘rewind’ freedom Brexit gave us,” the front page screamed, implying Brexit delivered concrete freedoms, and Keir Starmer is now plotting to snatch them away.
The problem, of course, is that the Express never quite explains what those freedoms actually are.
The article claims Starmer was “slammed for trying to ‘rewind’ Brexit,” after suggesting the public had been misled in 2016 by a series of promises that never materialised. This is an uncontroversial observation supported by years of post-Brexit reality, yet the Express frames it as an assault on democracy itself.
And the person doing the slamming? Nigel Farage, no less, who hit back, warning: “For some reason Sir Keir Starmer remains determined to drag us back under the heels of Brussels.”
The paper also called in shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel, who accused Starmer of “ten years after the referendum… still arguing with the British people rather than accepting their decision.”
That argument neatly sidesteps a basic democratic principle, that voters are allowed to reassess political decisions when the promised outcomes fail to appear.
Outside the Express bubble, the reaction was less obliging. Social media users responded with a simple question the paper declined to answer:
“WHAT FREEDOM? IT GAVE US NOTHING GAHHHHHHHH,” as one reader wrote.
The ridiculed front page followed a piece headlined: “Our greatest Crusade: How the Daily Express fought for YOUR Brexit.”
In it, the paper proudly retells its long campaign against European integration.
Readers are reminded that the Express opposed joining the European Economic Community in 1973, declared EU membership “a mistake,” and in 2010 became the first national newspaper to demand withdrawal. Former editor Peter Hill is praised for recognising readers’ supposed distrust of a “Brussels elite.” The paper boasts of petitions, front-page campaigns, and its refusal to be “cowed” by the political establishment, while relentlessly pushing stories about “uncontrolled immigration,” “ludicrous EU waste,” and Brussels diktats.
Having spent decades promising liberation, prosperity, and restored sovereignty, the Express now falls back on vague invocations of “freedom.” While the freedoms Brexit actually removed – freedom of movement, ease of trade, the right to live and work across Europe, for starters – are conveniently ignored.
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