The research paper, Democratic backsliding and public administration: the experience of the UK, was published in the journal Policy Studies.

It sounds the alarm about “democratic backsliding” in the United Kingdom between 2016 and 2024 – and the current threat to democracy posed by the rise of Reform.

The author, Dr Sean Kippin, a senior lecturer in politics at the university, has carried out a policy analysis of the post-Brexit Conservative government’s use of what he calls an “illiberal playbook”.

He contends that the Conservative government used a combination of legally permissible, legally dubious, and outright unlawful policy tools to systematically weaken democratic institutions and tilt the democratic playing field in its favour.

He said: “The paper shows that under successive prime ministers, beginning with Boris Johnson, the Conservatives used their powers to damage democracy. 

“They did this through several pieces of legislation and other associated policy interventions which have placed significant limits on the right to protest, compromised the independence of key democratic institutions such as the Electoral Commission, and waged divisive culture wars through their so-called war on woke.”

Policy examples include the weakening of freedom of information laws, the introduction of restrictive voter ID requirements, politically motivated public procurement, and the illegal proroguing of Parliament in 2019.

These interventions, the study suggests, were not isolated missteps but part of a broader trajectory that mirrored radical right populist movements seen globally.

Dr Kippin said: “Much damage was done to democracy in the post-Brexit period of Conservative rule and this paper is the first to systematically explore the period using the tools of policy analysis. 

“It demonstrates a connection between this democratic backsliding and the cumulative policy choices made by the last government. Critically, these developments have made UK democracy more vulnerable to future potential damage.”

The article also claims that the UK’s uncodified and highly flexible constitutional framework made it “particularly vulnerable to illiberal governance”. Unlike systems with entrenched constitutional checks, the UK relies heavily on political norms and self-restraint – both of which were repeatedly tested and, at times, breached during the Conservative governments of the post-Brexit era.

Dr Kippin said: “This article aims to sound the alarm – and to reinforce the notion that the UK is not invulnerable to the kinds of developments we are seeing elsewhere, such as in the United States and Central Europe. 

“UK democracy invests significant amounts of power in its executive, with few limitations. The Conservatives’ approach was to weaken accountability mechanisms, and to limit key individual and group liberties.”

Despite these worrying trends, the article notes that resistance from civil society, legal institutions, and sections of the media played a key role in limiting the damage. Several controversial government actions were overturned in court and attempts to push illiberal measures often faltered in the face of public backlash or legal complexity.

However, the article concludes that the groundwork laid by the Conservatives between 2016 and 2024 has lowered the floor for acceptable political conduct and made future democratic erosion more feasible.

With the rise of Reform UK under Nigel Farage and limited appetite within the new Labour government to overhaul political institutions, the threats to UK democracy may be far from over, Dr Kippin warns.