Sidhartha Shukla

moneycontrol.com

If volatility in global markets, warnings of a recession and a 32-year low in the value of the pound were not unnerving enough after Brexit, an emerging leadership void in the UK political system has threatened to further put a cloud on where Britain may be headed after the historic vote.

Days after UK voted in favour of leaving the European Union, the major architects of the Brexit movement have decided to step away from the thick of things.

It started with UK Prime Minister David Cameron who announced his resignation right after British voters decided in favour of Brexit.

During the campaign build-up, Cameron had urged UK voters to remain in the EU, famously saying “Brits don’t quit”.

But it was the outgoing PM who had promised in 2013 that if re-elected, he would hold an in-or-out referendum on whether Britain should stay in the EU.

In his post Brexit speech, Cameron said that the will of the British people is an instruction that must be carried out but added, “I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers the country to its next destination.”

Followed by Cameron’s departure, the poster-boy of the pro-Brexit campaign, Boris Johnson, was widely assumed to become the next Prime Minister.

However, the former London mayor shocked the world this past Thursday when he announced that he will be pulling out of the PM race after Michael Gove, his colleague, allegedly betrayed Johnson without notice, announcing that he will launch his own campaign for the PM’s post.

And in a major shocker yesterday, leader of the eurosceptic, far-right wing UK Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage announced his resignation, saying: "I feel I have done my bit" and that he "couldn't possibly achieve more."

Farage said that it was never his intention to be a career politician and his only aim was to get Britain out of the European Union.

"During the referendum campaign, I said 'I want my country back'. What I'm saying today, is, 'I want my life back,' and it begins right now."

As these chief architects of Brexit leave their posts, UK faces a political crisis, the like of which it has not seen since 1940.

To rub salt into wound, another referendum may shake Britain as Scotland – where the majority was in favour of staying in EU – may again call for a vote to decide whether it should stay with the UK or as an independent state [and possibly join the EU].

Even as UK stays divided -- with constituent states Scotland and Northern Ireland pondering over their options -- the lack of a strong leadership at the helm of the Brexit movement threatens to add to the costs of this messy divorce.