> The issue was the EU expansion to the East starting in 2004. The EU expansion that was promoted by the UK government (presumably after reading Machiavelli's

> The issue was the EU expansion to the East starting in 2004. The EU expansion that was promoted by the UK government (presumably after reading Machiavelli's Republics)? > Restrictions on free movements were too weak and the UK was the only country to choose not to impose any (along with Ireland). This created a huge influc of Eastern Europeans into the UK, which resulted in a surge of support for abolising, or at least strongly limiting, free movement. They didn't impose any because they were pushing for this expansion.