The Brexit referendum
The UK votes by 51.9% to 48.1% to leave the European Union, with majorities in England and Wales outvoting Remain majorities in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
- Results and turnout at the EU referendum — The Electoral Commission (UK) (2016)
- How the United Kingdom voted on Thursday… and why — Lord Ashcroft Polls (2016)
- Brexitland: Identity, Diversity and the Reshaping of British Politics — Maria Sobolewska and Robert Ford, Cambridge University Press (2020)
- Englishness: The Political Force Transforming Britain — Ailsa Henderson and Richard Wyn Jones, Oxford University Press (2021)
On 23 June 2016 the United Kingdom voted by 51.9% to 48.1% to leave the European Union, on a turnout of 72%. England voted Leave by 53.4% and Wales by 52.5%, while Scotland and Northern Ireland voted Remain; the UK formally left on 31 January 2020.
- Results and turnout at the EU referendum — The Electoral Commission (UK) (2016)
Inside England the map was striking. London voted 59.9% Remain, as did most big cities and university towns, while much of the North, the Midlands, the East and the coastal towns voted heavily Leave. Polls found a sharp generational divide: Lord Ashcroft’s polling on the day estimated that 73% of 18–24-year-olds voted Remain, while most over-65s voted Leave. Education was an even stronger predictor than class.
- Results and turnout at the EU referendum — The Electoral Commission (UK) (2016)
- How the United Kingdom voted on Thursday… and why — Lord Ashcroft Polls (2016)
- Brexitland: Identity, Diversity and the Reshaping of British Politics — Maria Sobolewska and Robert Ford, Cambridge University Press (2020)
Researchers such as Ailsa Henderson and Richard Wyn Jones found that people who felt “English” rather than “British” were far more likely to vote Leave, which is why many see Brexit as, in part, an English national revolt. Others stress older cleavages over immigration, identity and the places left behind by deindustrialisation.
- Englishness: The Political Force Transforming Britain — Ailsa Henderson and Richard Wyn Jones, Oxford University Press (2021)
- Brexitland: Identity, Diversity and the Reshaping of British Politics — Maria Sobolewska and Robert Ford, Cambridge University Press (2020)
In Wales, Leave won in every council area except Cardiff, Gwynedd, Ceredigion, the Vale of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire. For Scotland and Northern Ireland, which were outvoted, Brexit became an argument about the Union itself.
- Results and turnout at the EU referendum — The Electoral Commission (UK) (2016)
Leaving restored national sovereignty and democratic control over laws, borders and money, and gave a voice to people in towns far from London whose concerns about immigration and deindustrialisation had been dismissed for decades.
- Brexitland: Identity, Diversity and the Reshaping of British Politics — Maria Sobolewska and Robert Ford, Cambridge University Press (2020)
- Englishness: The Political Force Transforming Britain — Ailsa Henderson and Richard Wyn Jones, Oxford University Press (2021)
Brexit was sold on false promises, has damaged trade and the economy, weakened the Union with Scotland and Northern Ireland, and took away younger people's right to live and work across Europe against the wishes of most of them.
- Brexitland: Identity, Diversity and the Reshaping of British Politics — Maria Sobolewska and Robert Ford, Cambridge University Press (2020)
- How the United Kingdom voted on Thursday… and why — Lord Ashcroft Polls (2016)
Scotland (62% Remain) and Northern Ireland (55.8% Remain) were taken out by English votes, reviving the case for Scottish independence and Irish unity; see Scotland's "Brexit and divergence" and Ireland's "Brexit and the Irish border".
- Results and turnout at the EU referendum — The Electoral Commission (UK) (2016)
Why it matters today
Brexit was decided above all in England, where 53.4% voted Leave, and it exposed divisions between cities and towns, young and old, graduates and non-graduates, and London and the rest. For many Leave voters it was a cry for control and for places long ignored; for many Remainers it was a loss of European identity. The argument shaped a decade of English politics and still lingers.
Wales voted Leave by 52.5%, despite receiving more EU regional funding per head than England, which puzzled many outsiders. The vote split Wales between the Welsh-speaking west and Cardiff, which leaned Remain, and the English border and former industrial valleys, which leaned Leave. Since then, arguments over replacing EU funds have fed tensions between Cardiff and Westminster.