Brexit: UK Votes to Leave EU
The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union on 23 June 2016 by 51.9 per cent to 48.1, on a turnout of 72.2 per cent — about 1.3 million votes in a poll of 33.6 million. David Cameron had promised the referendum in 2013 to settle a question that had divided the Conservative Party for thirty years and to see off UKIP, expecting to win it as he had won the Scottish referendum in 2014. The Leave campaign ran on sovereignty and immigration, and on a claim, painted on a bus, that membership cost £350 million a week that could go to the health service. Remain ran on economic risk, which was widely characterised as Project Fear and which the electorate discounted. The result divided the country along lines that have organised its politics since: England and Wales voted to leave, Scotland and Northern Ireland to remain; older and less-educated voters leave, younger and graduate voters remain; London and the university cities against most of the rest of England. Cameron resigned the next morning. Three years of parliamentary deadlock followed, chiefly over the Irish border, which had to stay open under the Good Friday Agreement and which could not be open if Britain left the customs union without a special arrangement. Theresa May's deal was defeated three times. Boris Johnson won a large majority in December 2019 and put the border in the Irish Sea. Departure took effect on 31 January 2020. Trade with the EU has fallen relative to forecasts and business investment has lagged. The Northern Ireland arrangements required renegotiation in 2023 as the Windsor Framework.
- Year: 2016 CE
- Category: Political
