‘Less Stale, Only Slightly Less Male, but Overwhelmingly Less Pale’: the 2015 New Conservative Brexiters in the House of Commons

Abstract

This article will study the new face of Conservative Euroscepticism in the House of Commons, with a special focus on the 2015 intake of MPs who were supposedly ‘less stale, male and pale’ and their attitudes to the British referendum on the EU. In this respect, this article will also take a specific interest in new Conservative Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) MPs who turned out to be more active on the ‘leave’ side of the referendum campaign, thus serving as a showcase for the party's strategy of ‘decontaminating’ the Brexit brand and its hyperglobalist geopolitical perspective.