Originally posted by the think-tank Fide Fundacion on 23 March 2021 under the title Why have some UK intellectuals welcomed Brexit? Contains minor amendments/updating. Some see Brexit as a victory for populists who misled the working classes and the less well-off in society into voting against their own interests. I have never thought that a fair analysis. It is true that in the Brexit referendum most academics, university graduates and university students in the UK voted to remain, with perhaps 68% of graduates and 90% of academics in UK universities voting in this way. But the political views of those with university degrees are no more worthy of respect than those without them. And millions of graduates and tens of thousands of academics did vote to leave. It would be wrong to conclude that there were no rational arguments to be made for Brexit, and that no intellectuals accepted and advanced such arguments. In this article written for the Fide Fundacion I examine the arguments for Brexit made by two such intellectuals, and flag up points of contact with narratives of Remainers.