Britain voted on Thursday to leave the European Union, after a campaign characterized by fear of immigration, anger over a perceived undemocratic bureaucracy and trust in a charismatic political outsider.



If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is. You can’t fail to notice the parallels between Donald Trump’s Latino-and-Muslim-free vision of America and the desire of Nigel Farage, driver if not leader of the “Leave” campaign, to cleanse the UK of Poles, refugees and anyone else who can’t trace their British roots back to the bronze age.

The Brexit vote also revealed that the UK, like the US, is deeply divided. Sections of the voting population have drastically different opinions on the current state of their country and what its future should look like.

Trump v Farage

Jowls and loud-mouthed xenophobia aside, in appearance and lifestyle the two men do not have much in common.

Donald Trump is a fake-tanned, image-obsessed New Yorker who doesn’t drink or smoke and has never had a cup of coffee. Nigel Farage is a pasty-skinned, British-toothed cigarette smoker who grew up in the rolling countryside of southern England and has built a political career around drinking beer.

In terms of background, however, the two have plenty in common. Blue collar they are not. Trump inherited his father’s wildly successful housing business. Farage attended a fee-paying school – only 7% of Britons do so – before earning millions as a stockbroker.

Despite this, both have shown an uncanny ability to appeal to the working man – mostly by stoking fears about immigration. Trump thinks Mexico is sending rapists to the US. Farage hasn’t been as clear about what he thinks the European Union is sending to the UK, but the fact he has been hawking a billboard showing a line of thousands of huddled, dark-skinned refugees offers a clue.

Nigel Farage launches a Ukip EU referendum poster campaign. Photograph: Philip Toscano/PA

Other Trump grievances include Washington bureaucrats making terrible deals, China wreaking havoc with the US economy and countries around the world laughing at America.

For Farage, substitute Washington with Brussels and China with Brussels and countries around the world with Brussels.

Mexican cooks v Polish plumbers

Every successfully intolerant campaign needs someone to demonise. The foreign worker who is coming over here and taking our jobs. The immigrant who is abusing the benefit system. The Black Lives Matter protester who’s just been punched in the face at one of your rallies.

In America, the Mexican worker embodies everything the right perceives to be wrong with immigration policy. The Mexican worker has ruthlessly infiltrated the US with the specific intent of stealing low-paying, poorly regulated and undesirable jobs. Oh, and of abusing government benefits.

In the UK, this rallying figure is the Polish plumber, a man who has travelled from Warsaw to Wolverhampton with just one thing on his mind: fixing toilets. Toilets that a British plumber could be fixing. The Polish plumber also wants to abuse government benefits.

Two fingers (or one) to the establishment

In winning the Republican nomination, Trump beat out five current or former senators and nine current or former governors. In doing so, he defied opposition from the Republican National Committee and many serving congressmen and senators.

In the UK, the Leave campaign triumphed in the face of opposition from the leaders of every major political party and the vast majority of members of parliament.

On both sides of the Atlantic, this represented an epic flipping off of the established political class by millions of disillusioned voters. Which leads us to ...

Age and social standing

Britain was hugely divided over Europe. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, 73% wanted to stay in the EU. Only 40% of over 65s felt the same way.

What was particularly startling were the positions leave voters were likely to have on an array of social issues. Opinion polls showed those keenest on protecting Britain from being overwhelmed by immigrants and fancy European ideas were overwhelmingly opposed to multiculturalism (81% thought it was a force for ill), feminism (74%) and the green movement (78%).

In the US, older people and those without college degrees are voting for Trump – for policies that share much with such issues.

Fury of the neglected towns

The vast majority of the north of England voted to leave. The north is home to towns and cities that were built around industries that have long since left. Cotton, steel and mining used to provide jobs in places such as Preston, Sheffield and Sunderland.

Now, there aren’t many jobs. People are leaving, shops are closing, schools are underperforming, life expectancy is lower than in the rest of the country. Wages are lower. In Thursday’s vote, people in lower income brackets were far more likely to vote to leave.

For the US, read: rust belt. In depressed areas of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia voters are more likely to flock to Trump and Republicans in general.

An (allegedly) distant, unrepresentative, bureaucratic government

Washington DC. Brussels. Both can seem distant, mythical places. Places where no one outside has a clue what goes on inside. Places power must be wrenched back from, where cats have to be put among the espresso-sipping, do-nothing pigeons. Places that must be torn down and rebuilt.

In the UK, the Leave campaign has achieved this. In the US, it’s Trump’s turn to try.