Why hasn’t the Remain dog barked in this election?

The hopes of those who want Britain to stay in the EU have been dashed by this election. There has been no Brexit backlash. The party that wanted to overturn the result, the Liberal Democrats, have had a minimal impact on the campaign. By the time Britain next goes to the polls in a general election, the deed will have been done: this country will have left both the EU and the single market.

Straight after the referendum last year, some Leavers feared victory would be snatched from them. They worried that a general election could lead to a parliament that was prepared to go back on the result. Instead, this election has served to confirm that Brexit is happening. It now has the endorsement not only of a referendum, but of a general election too. There is no way for its opponents to stop it any more. Indeed, one of the most striking things about this campaign is how much the Labour and Tory Brexit positions have converged. The only matter of substance, as opposed to negotiating tactics, on which they differ is customs union membership.

Brexit has been Theresa May’s best card in this election. Whenever she has been in trouble, she has tried to steer the conversation back to it. As she sought to calm Tory nerves in her final big TV appearance of the campaign, she declared that she had called the election ‘for Brexit’. Another sign that Brexit was the Tories’ strongest issue was that none of their campaign wobbles was about withdrawal from the EU. If this had been more of a Brexit election, May would have had an easier time.

The failure of the Remain dog to bark in this election is surprising. After all, less than a year ago, 48 per cent of voters opted to stay in the EU.