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Abstract

The vote to leave the European Union, delivered by the voters of the United Kingdom in a referendum on 23rd June 2016, was historic; it represented a decisive break from the status quo and had profound social, economic and political ramifications both domestically and internationally. The political drama that occurred whilst trying to implement this decision has been well documented, but little attention has yet been paid to how the vote for Brexit came about. This dissertation explores why the British people voted to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum, which will be achieved through a mixture of literature reviews and data analysis – part of the latter will be used for primary research purposes, to analyse theories that have already been advanced in the academic discourse. It will demonstrate that immigration is seen as the primary reason for the UK voting to leave the European Union, but will argue that whilst this was an important factor others, such as perceived loss of sovereignty, the issue of identity and the notion of a ‘Left Behind Britain’ also contributed to the Leave vote; stating that immigration was the sole contributor would be unwise and inaccurate. This dissertation will be split into three chapters: the first will look at the political motivations for calling the referendum and the demographic breakdown of the votes cast, the second will review attitudes to the European Union and concepts related to this such as globalisation over the timespan of the UK’s membership, whilst the third will assess the factors that are considered to have led to the vote for Brexit. From the primary research undertaken in the first chapter, the dissertation will agree with the consensus established in the literature that those who were older, less educated and more economically deprived were more likely to opt for Brexit.

Course: International Relations and Politics - BA (Hons) - C0694

Date Deposited: 2021-03-11

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13681.html