To ban or not to ban: the UK's Hamlet moment with farm antibiotics

This article applies the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) to examine post-Brexit antimicrobial resistance (AMR) governance in UK agriculture, focusing on the contested regulation of prophylactic antibiotic use in farm animals. The study reveals how Brexit created a structural policy window, yet political and ideological dynamics rendered it functionally ineffective. While the problem and policy streams were well developed—supported by strong scientific evidence and viable alternatives—the politics stream, shaped by narratives of sovereignty, deregulation, and trade competitiveness, consistently blocked reform. The paper introduces the concept of a “meta-policy window” and shows how evidence was strategically mobilized rather than uniformly accepted. This case demonstrates how ideological filtering and institutional ambiguity can constrain policy change, even in moments of apparent opportunity. It contributes to policy theory by refining MSF for complex, post-crisis environments and offers broader lessons on evidence use, regulatory drift, and the politics of inaction.