Meet Roger and Carol, the true victims of Brexit (which they voted for)

Ten years to the day since the referendum that wrenched Britain out of the EU, there have been many desperate victims. The European citizens afraid of being forced from their homes. The businesses drowning in red tape. The artists and musicians now unable to perform on stages across the continent.

But will someone please think of Roger and Carol, the octogenarian couple used as a case study by the Sunday Times at the weekend as Europe correspondent Katie Gatens reported on the British expats now being replaced in their Costa del Sol retirement homes by Poles as a result of, er, a referendum result they voted for?

Under the headline “Costa del Poles: How Brexit changed the face of expats in Spain” the paper reported on how wealthy Eastern Europeans had raced in to snap up properties vacated by Brits as the end of freedom of movement meant retiring to the sun became a bureaucratic impossibility for many in the UK.

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Gatens spoke to Roger and Carol, two 80-year-olds who perhaps understandably chose to decline to give their surname, and reported on their heartbreaking plight.

“When Roger and Carol, 80, woke up on the morning of June 24, 2016, in their home overlooking the fairways of Mijas golf course, they had some big regrets,” reported Gatens. “The couple had lived in Spain for 15 years, but both had voted for Britain to leave the European Union. They were ‘shocked’ when the result came in.”

Roger, who was visiting friends in Fuengirola and “sipping a cold beer” when Gatens dropped by last week, told her: “We didn’t think it would actually happen.” Roger had worked at Luton’s Vauxhall car factory from the age of 16, retired at 55 and moved to Spain. “Suddenly, their future on the sunny Costa del Sol hung in the balance,” reported Gatens.

“Fearing (incorrectly, it would turn out) that the consequences of Brexit could mean losing their pension and NHS access, they sold their Spanish home and moved back to the UK shortly before the transition period ended in December 2020,” the report went on. “It was the biggest, worst decision we ever made,” said Roger. “I didn’t think it through properly.”