Of course there are racists who supported Brexit on no other basis than race. Those isolated clips don't represent 17.4 million Brexiteers. At the same time, you can not tell me that there were no racists among the EU supporters. If anything, the EU is the "white man's club". The vast majority of immigrants to the UK are not from the EU, they are from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, many of whom voted form Brexit by the way.
That stuff about British empire is just cringeworthy. But it is worth noting that the EU is fast becoming a protectionist empire of its own, the fall of which is inevitable to me. There is no way you can bring 27 very different cultures and economies under the same umbrella and expect there to be no backlash. Perhaps the project went to fast for its own good, instead of taking its time so that new generations have the opportunity to get used to it.
Part of the complexity is the cultural attack that many people feel is happening to their ways of life, the Woke culture. No matter where you are, UK or Greece, France, Hungary or Iran for that matter, people don't like to be told they are racist because they like to preserve the traditions they were brought up with. Many people saw this as the result of further integration with the EU.
If "right-wing populists" dominate politics, it's because of the mistakes that were made by the other side. I mean seriously , how does the current UK Labour party represent the traditional working classes? It has become the party of gender identity and veganism fronted by the likes of Angela Raynor, Emily snob Thornberry, Jonathan Ashworth and campaigned for by middle class London metropolitan rich kids like Hugh Grant and that manwoman Eddie Izzard! And of course many people didn't forget Corbyn cosying up to the IRA when they were setting off bombs every where. Were you seriously surprised that their message did not resonate with the traditional Labour voters?
As I say, it's a very complex issue and of course the economy had a lot to do with it too as people saw the gap between themselves and those in the EU hierarchy. But calling them all uneducated and racist misses the point completely and doesn't help remedy the situation and alienates them even more. I am not sure Labour have learnt their lesson though. I don't see any way back for them for a while and it's all down to their won misjudgments.