Mind the gap! UK employment policy both during and beyond EU membership: from policy layering to policy drift

This article interrogates the impact of EU employment policy on UK both during and after Membership. To do so, it adopts insights from historical institutionalism discursive institutionalism. The argument made is that integration in area resulted a process ‘layering’ whereby ultimately tamed some more liberal elements UK’s model. Such layering, however, failed to generate fundamental change within path dependency owing emergence powerful discourse British politics. portrayed legislation as threat ability growth jobs. As an ‘independent’ country, overtime likely experience drift EU, albeit extent such remains unclear.