Post-Brexit Prime Minister Must Embrace Millennials and Our Progressive Outlook

Millennials. Generation Y. Call us what you will, but those of us born in or just after the eighties, who were teenagers in the noughties and young adults in a post-recession UK, must be one of the central focuses for the new Prime Ministers #Brexit vision...

Millennials. Generation Y. Call us what you will, but those of us born in or just after the eighties, who were teenagers in the noughties and young adults in a post-recession UK, must be one of the central focuses for the new Prime Ministers #Brexit vision.

There have been many calls for the next Prime Minister to be from the Brexit camp, and for the negotiations to be led by those who wanted to leave the UK from the start. Whilst I accept the former, I draw the line at the latter.

The polls, and the pain and incredulity on my Facebook feed, show that the majority of us 'Millennials' who voted, voted to remain in the EU. So yes, we lost. But that should not mean that the leadership candidates and negotiations should lurch towards satisfying the older generation's vision for the UK, and theirs alone.

Whilst economic prudence is still a cornerstone of being a Conservative, the millennial voice is much more socially progressive than that of yesteryear's youth. We must ensure that our voice is heard so that the country doesn't transform into one we don't recognise.

Despite the current political and economic wobbles (earthquakes) caused by the referendum result, the UK political landscape is in a pretty progressive place. We must ensure that this is not lost in the clamour to leave the EU.

London has its first Muslim mayor. The next Prime Minister is likely to be a woman, as could the next leader of Labour by all accounts. The First Ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all women, as well are the leaders of the main opposition parties in Scotland. Two of these leaders are openly gay, and this number could rise to three if Angela Eagle topples Jeremy Corbyn.

This is the UK that I, and the majority of my generation, recognise and embrace. A socially progressive, inclusive and united country. Not the post referendum UK where racial abuse is reportedly on the rise, or where there are clamours to deport EU friends and colleagues who have lived and worked in this country longer than my seven year old nephew has been alive.

Whatever the negotiations, there must be compassion, tolerance and humanity ingrained into it all. We are the generation inheriting this outcome to pass on to our own children, and the new Prime Minister must ensure it won't be a country we are ashamed of.

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