Only England and Wales voted to leave the EU. So the UK should let them go

The people have spoken and the UK stands divided. The English and the Welsh voted to leave the EU. Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain. Big questions arise: will Scotland want to leave the UK and/or be able to stay in the EU? What happens to the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and, for that matter, the entire Irish settlement? How can people be stripped of rights? What about trade? What about migration?

At the time of the referendum on independence for Scotland from the UK in 2014, Scottish people faced a conundrum. If Scotland had left the UK, then Scotland would automatically have been ejected from the EU.

The Scottish nationalists said that their intention would be for Scotland to apply to become a member of the EU, but the indications from Brussels were that Scotland would have to join the queue for membership. Any Scottish application would have to be agreed by all EU states, including Spain, which is reluctant to see breakaway regions being treated kindly, given the threat of secession by Catalonia.

With article 50 looming large and the government keen to avoid lengthy parliamentary debate on the terms of departure, perhaps it’s worth considering another form of Brexit. Why don’t England and Wales leave the United Kingdom? They would be automatically ejected from the EU and Scotland and Northern Ireland would then be the constituent parts of the United Kingdom, which would remain in the EU.

Under this arrangement, the UK (by then, the UK of Scotland and Northern Ireland) would not trigger article 50 and would not leave the EU. This would mean that there would be no issue between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in terms of trade and the movement of people across the border. The voters there would get what they voted for. Scotland and Northern Ireland could adopt the euro, if they wished. The EU land border with England would be the border with Scotland.

Scotland would be free of rule by Westminster, without having to leave the UK. Edinburgh’s financial services sector would not have to worry about the loss of “passporting rights” and England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would all keep the Queen as head of state, who would continue to live between London, Windsor and Balmoral.

The home nations would then create a new constitutional arrangement, to cooperate closely and to acknowledge the historic kinship between nations. It could be called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. As such, the UK would be preserved, but rewired for a post-Brexit world. Financial transfers would need to be agreed between the parts of the UK to preserve stability.

The exit from the EU of England and Wales would allow the Westminster government to negotiate without delay (and in advance) a favourable settlement with Europe without the need for all sides to be constrained by the limitations of article 50. This could include transitional arrangements covering trade, migration and financial contributions. Even the EU would win: there would still be 28 member states, as no member state would have left.

Certain matters would be reserved to the “new” UK on a cooperative basis, including security and the UN seat. English and Welsh citizens should be offered the opportunity to become dual nationals of the UK of Scotland and Northern Ireland, thus preserving their rights to live and work within the EU. The equivalent right could be extended to citizens of Scotland and Northern Ireland, to preserve their right to live in England and Wales. There is a precedent for this in the UK’s arrangements with the Republic of Ireland.

If these measures were taken, then the 48% who voted to stay in the EU would at least feel that their rights as EU citizens were not being stolen.