My views on EU may have influenced Boris Johnson’s decision to back Brexit, his ex-wife says

Boris Johnson’s ex-wife has claimed her views on the European Union may have influenced her husband’s decision to lead the Brexit campaign.

Marina Wheeler, a leading human rights lawyer, says that unlike her ex-husband, she was a strong supporter of the EU for most of their 27-year marriage.

But her view changed when she was ‘aghast’ to learn of the ‘unacceptable’ power of European judges over UK law, she discloses in Sir Anthony Seldon’s book ‘The Brexit Effect,’ which is being serialised in the Independent.

The serialisation is part of a new campaign by The Independent on how Britain can rebuild its shattered links with Europe. The campaign – Europe: The Way Back – will consist of news, analysis, interviews and live events examining the impact of Brexit and what our relationship with Europe should look like.

Ms Wheeler says her change of heart in the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum had a big effect on Mr Johnson, to whom she was married at the time.

“The fact that I, a lifelong supporter of the project, felt in 2016 that the status quo was no longer acceptable undoubtedly struck him. Perhaps he saw the shift in my view as a bellwether of wider opinion. In a sense, it was. The EU had changed,” she writes.

Ms Wheeler suggests it may have convinced him that public opinion was turning against the EU.

Mr Johnson’s decision to lead the successful Brexit campaign came just four months ahead of the vote and caused a sensation. After the referendum, it emerged that before making his decision, he was so uncertain he wrote two essays, one for and one against Brexit.

In her article, Ms Wheeler recalls how they met when they both attended the European School in Brussels. They married in 1993 and divorced in 2020.

She writes: “Since our Brussels days in the 1990s, he had remained the (euro) sceptic and I the enthusiast. The fact that I, a life-long supporter of the (European) project, felt in 2016 that the status quo was no longer acceptable undoubtedly struck him. Perhaps he saw the shift in my view as a bellwether of wider opinion. In a sense it was. The EU had changed.”

Ms Wheeler says that although the aftermath of Brexit “threatened to tear the social fabric apart,” it was the right decision.

“Ten years on, I do not regret the decision. But the continuing division is dispiriting. We are still in our silos, wedded to outdated thinking, resentful and too timid to make the changes we need.”

Her support for the EU in its “1990s heyday” had faded as “EU decision-making grew (and) national politics shrank”.

Ms Wheeler says she conducted a straw poll of her friends at the time which showed few could even name their MEP.

Discovering the power of the European Court of Justice over UK justice – “a dramatic loss of national control” – made a huge impression on her. “I confess that, when I stumbled on this, I was aghast.

“At that point, I was still married to Boris. For a time, the promised benefits seemed to outweigh the constraints. By 2016, however, I – and others – felt the balance had tipped the other way.

“As voters turned against the status quo, the need to change became urgent. When the EU proved unwilling to do so… I reluctantly concluded that the time had come to take back control.”

Mrs Wheeler says “strong close relations between the UK and continental Europe” are vital.

But she adds: “Talk of ‘rejoining’ the EU is not a fruitful way to move forward.

“Too frequently, EU action was seen as an assault on national sovereignty that Britain had to resist. Rejoining or unilaterally aligning with the EU… would be regressive.”

But Brussels also has to change, says Mrs Wheeler. ”On the EU side, it is time to stop punishing the UK for leaving.”

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