The referendum campaign had been “the UK's most divisive, hostile, negative and fear-provoking of the 21st century” (Moore & Ramsay 2017: 164) and indeed in living memory. The narrow result, perceived by many on the losing side as achieved through extensive dishonesty and abuse, provoked deep divisions both within parties and across society. These sharpened the cleavage between “open” or “liberal” and “closed” or “authoritarian” groups in parliament and the electorate, which now became known as “Leavers” and “Remainers”. This would almost certainly have been the case whatever the 2016 outcome, since a narrow Remain win would have antagonized the emboldened Leave movement and electorate – and especially the more aggressive Leavers – probably leading to new conflict. Indeed, it is highly possible, given the climate which developed in the late stages of the referendum and its immediate aftermath, that with the Brexit press having paved the way for viewing a Remain win as illegitimate and almost half of Leavers believing that the vote would be rigged, this could have led to the kind of protest and violence which followed Trump's defeat in 2020. There would have been a temptation for the Brexit tabloids, Farage and some Tory Leavers to stoke this situation; extreme right groups, some of which leaned towards violence, would also have brought themselves to the fore. However, the Leave victory meant that open intimidation and violence, after initially surging, slowly dissipated and the climate which they created instead reshaped the political project as it passed into the hands of the Conservative government.