The idea that English nationalism has powered support for Brexit is unduly simplistic and requires re-examination

English sentiment has been important to the tenor and character of the Vote Leave campaign, but Michael Kenny writes there are reasons to be sceptical that English nationalism has had a clear, causal role in the EU Referendum. He asks whether the picture of the ‘two Englands’ – one progressive and cosmopolitan, the other populist and nationalist – draws too sharp a distinction between them, and in doing so underplays the extent to which fears about cultural identity, inequality and immigration are shared in very different kinds of places and communities.