Circumstances

The speech itself

On 17 January 2017, Prime Minister Theresa May delivered her “Lancaster House speech” on Brexit and the British Government’s plan for a good deal with the EU. The speech was held at the old Lancaster House manor in London’s West End and was widely televised and transcribed since it was the first time May publicly outlined the Brexit plan in detail.

At this point in time, polls showed that May was very popular among the British population. She had held the position as Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party for about six months.

The campaigns leading up to the Brexit referendum

In June 2016, about six months before May gave her “Lancaster House speech”, Britain held a national referendum on the question of EU membership where the majority voted Leave. In the months leading up to it, the UK was buzzing with debate over advantages and disadvantages of remaining within the EU. Many individual groups took part in the campaigns, both on the Leave side and on the Remain side. The official Leave campaigning group was called Vote Leave whereas the official Remain group was called Britain Stronger in Europe.

Political parties also declared their official standpoints. In England, the Conservative Party declared itself neutral on the question of Brexit, UKIP (the UK Independence Party) was strongly in favour of leaving, while Labour and the Liberal Democrats wanted to remain. Naturally, not all individual members of each party agreed with the party standpoint.

Some of the main arguments of the Leave campaign were that the EU was smothering the UK with laws and taking away UK sovereignty and that immigration had grown too large in recent years due to “soft” ...