Rosa Prince, Columnist

The United Kingdom May Be Stumbling Toward a Disastrous Breakup

May 6, 2026 at 4:00 AM UTC

Updated on

May 6, 2026 at 12:30 PM UTC

Rosa Prince is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering UK politics and policy. She was formerly an editor and writer at Politico and the Daily Telegraph, and is the author of "Comrade Corbyn" and "Theresa May: The Enigmatic Prime Minister."

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Barring an unprecedented upset, in a few days each of the four nations that make up the UK1 will be ruled by a different political party. Polls suggest three of the four will be separatists dedicated to the breakup of the union of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales that has existed since Ireland seceded in 1922.

Should they win, it would be wrong to see that as a verdict on the state of the union, or an indication of overwhelming support in the smaller nations for a split. Yet we could be stepping onto an escalator that leads to that outcome.