Causes of the vote in favour of Brexit

[5] Two years later, in December 2018, pollsters from Survation asked 1,030 people whether they approved or disapproved with the Brexit deal negotiated by EU leaders and the British government in relation to sovereignty.

This concern is most widely recognised in former British MP Enoch Powell's famous Rivers of Blood speech made in 1968, in which he warns of the dangers of mass immigration.

The UKIP leader told the Press Association: "You can agree or disagree with much of the Powell doctrine, but his belief in the state having less of a say over our lives, in us not having our laws made in Brussels and having sensible controls over our borders – whilst his language may seem out-of-date now, the principles remain good and true.

This manifested in terms of geography as an island country with few shared land borders, numerous opt-outs (such as currency and Schengen), historical links to the Anglosphere and Commonwealth from which diaspora had settled in the UK.

Academics James Dennison and Noah Carl argue that "the most important phenomenon to be explained vis-à-vis the referendum result in our view is that a sizeable Eurosceptic faction has remained extant in Britain over the last four decades".

[30] Taylor writes Britain is defined by being at the centre of relations, whether from the Special Relationship or in the Commonwealth, which shares common historical, cultural and linguistic bonds with the United Kingdom.

[26] In fact according to a study carried out by the peer-reviewed journal, 'World development', they estimate that an increase of about 3% of British adults accessing higher education in England and Wales could have reversed the referendum result.

[39] Additionally, studies have shown that those with lower educational qualifications are more likely to be socially conservative and feel that European membership brings about constant and dramatic change to the UK, which would be an incentive to vote 'leave'.

[2] As it states in the academic article: 'Confounding and collinearity in regression analysis: a cautionary tale and an alternative procedure, illustrated by studies of British voting behaviour', "The United Kingdom Independence Party's (UKIP) success at recent British elections— notably for the European Parliament in 2014 and in the 2015 general election—is generally linked to the attractiveness of its right-wing populist appeal to those who have gained least from globalisation over recent decades in particular among: older people (especially males); those with few, if any, formal educational qualifications; and those living in areas with high levels of economic and social deprivation.

[45] Analysing data the day after the Referendum, Ford concluded that 'Such voters had turned against a political class they saw as dominated by socially liberal university graduates with values fundamentally opposed to theirs, on identity, Europe – and particularly immigration.'

Bateman suggests that today's globalised world has contributed to the feeling of fast-paced changes in society and the economy, leading to the sense of being 'left behind', which she argues motivated some voters to vote 'leave'.

[51] In a similar manner to the arguments of Goodwin, Ford and Bateman it has also been suggested that both economically and socially 'left behind' groups "are united by a general sense of insecurity, pessimism and marginalisation", increasingly feeling as though liberalised society as well as the British and European establishments do not represent their interests or share their concerns.

[47] According to Goodwin and Heath, greater support for leaving the EU was found in areas where large parts of the population were lacking the skills and qualifications required to do well in a global and competitive economy.

[61] The World Economic Forum 2016 acknowledged in its Global Risks Report that "the Brexit and President-elect Trump victories featured (...) appeals to sovereignty rooted in national identity and pride" and that it would "be challenging to find political narratives and policies that can repair decades-long cultural fault-lines".

[67] Some Brexit supporters found the West Lothian question to be a heavy driver for the leave vote as ongoing disputes between the UK and Scotland over issues arguable in both the Westminster and Scottish Parliament became a leading cause of weakened national identity and a challenge to parliamentary sovereignty.

[70] Budget negotiations in 2013 led to both Labour Party and Conservative Eurosceptics voting against the government in favour of passing an amendment calling for a real term cut in EU spending.

[29] Moreover, academics have stated that the EU's approach in using austerity to manage its wider economy not only contributed to the debt crisis, but further stimulated euroscepticsm, determining the voting behaviour of many.

[74] Many academics have since pointed to a public survey identified how "people's subjective judgments of their surrounding economic conditions were more important predictors of attitudes towards the EU" compared to "how the economy was actually performing [as a whole]".

Farage was quoted in an interview with the Express saying that "Open-door migration has suppressed wages in the unskilled labour market, meant that living standards have failed and that life has become a lot tougher for so many in our country.

Conversely 185 Conservatives, 210 Labour, 54 SNP, 8 Liberal Democrat and 14 MPs of smaller parties declared their support for Remain[90] Boris Johnson and cabinet minister Michael Gove becoming leading figures in the Leave Campaign is a factor considered to have given the pro-Brexit side a wider appeal and greater credibility.

[26] Historical examples of euroscepticism within the Labour party include the 1975 referendum on European membership, the position and influence of Tony Benn and Hugh Gaitskell's famous 1962 speech in which he said joining the EEC would be "the end of a thousand years of history".

[91] Michael Dougan, Professor of European Law at the University of Liverpool, in a viral video of one of his lectures prior to the referendum, described the Leave campaign as peddling "dishonesty on an industrial scale".

Economics writer Chris Dillow has argued that, among other factors, prospect theory may explain the willingness of many voters to take a path that he sees as the more risky of two (change vs status quo).

[26] Furthermore, the official leaflet supplied by the government to make the case for remaining in the EU failed to address the issue of sovereignty, which was another area that Vote Leave was gaining a lot of support.

Analysis carried out by Harold D. Clarke, Matthew Godwin and Paul Whiteley, appears to show that those who had an unfavourable view of immigration and felt that too much decision making had been taken away from the British government, were much more likely to minimise the risk of Brexit, partially because they perceived they had little to lose.

In 2017 U.S. President Donald Trump stated that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to open her country's borders for more than a million refugees and illegal immigrants was a "catastrophic mistake" and "the final straw that broke the camel's back", allowing the Leave campaign to win.

[114][115] Leading Leave campaigner Michael Gove said that it was "the wrong thing to do", whilst then-Chancellor George Osborne of the Remain side stated that the poster "had echoes of literature used in the 1930s" in Germany.

[117] The implication of this as supported by academic author of 'Media definitely do matter: Brexit, immigration, climate change and beyond', 'Neil T. Gavin', is that the political stance of the print media could have shaped the public's opinion before the referendum.

Seaton explains that long-term anti-EU reporting, demonisation of foreign nationals and the working class in mainstream media could have made the public more susceptible to pro-Brexit arguments, as well as having "shaped the debate".

[126] An academic journal published by the University of Cardiff, covering post truth politics within Brexit, found that there were over 800,000 tweets promoting the hashtag VoteLeave, which nearly doubled its remain counterpart in the run-up to the referendum.