2. • European Union was originally formed with six nations
in 1957
• UK joined in 1973
• EU now include 28 countries
• UK continues to use the Pound as its currency, while
most EU nations have moved to Euro. Neither does it
participate in the Schengen border-free zone, which
allows passport-free travel in EU.
UK History with EU
3. BREXIT
Shorthand way of saying
the UK leaving the EU-
merging the words Britain
and exit to get Brexit.
4. What is a referendum ?
• A vote in which everyone of voting age can take part
• Normally giving a “Yes” or “No” answer to a question.
• Whichever side gets more than half of all votes cast is
considered to have won.
5. Why is a referendum being held?
• Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to hold a
referendum if he won the 2015 general election, in response to
growing calls from his own Conservative party MPs and the UK
Independence Party (UKIP), who argued that Britain had not had
a say since 1975, when it voted to stay in the EU in a referendum.
• The EU has changed a lot since then, gaining more control over
their daily lives, they argued. Mr Cameron had said: “It is time
for the British people to have their say. It is time to settle this
European question in British politics.”
6. Who Will be able to vote ?
• A British, Irish or
Commonwealth citizen
over the age of 18 and are
resident in the UK.
• A UK national who has
lived overseas for less
than 15 years.
7. Who wants the UK to leave the EU?
• The British public are fairly evenly split.
• The UK Independence Party, which won the last
European elections- received nearly four million
votes – 13% of those cast – in May’s general
election
• About half of Conservative MPs, including five
cabinet ministers, several Labour MPs and the
DUP are also in favour of leaving.
8. Why is Britain leaving the European
Union?
A referendum - a vote in which everyone (or nearly
everyone) of voting age can take part - was held on
Thursday 23 June, to decide whether the UK should
leave or remain in the European Union. Leave won
by 52% to 48%. The referendum turnout was 71.8%,
with more than 30 million people voting.
9. Reason for UK to leave?
• Membership Fee - Britain is being held back by the EU, which they say
imposes too many rules on business and charges billions of pounds a year in
membership fees for little in return.
• They also want Britain to take back full control of its borders and reduce the
number of people coming here to live and/or work.
• Britain joined the European Economic Community in 1973 and hence the EU in
the 1990s. But Britain never fully accepted the legitimacy of European control
over British institutions in a way that other EU members did. It refused, for
example, to join either the Schengen Area, which eliminates internal border
controls, or the common currency.
10. • Immigration Issue - Britain refused to participate in the Schengen agreement and
fully dismantle border controls with other EU countries.
• But EU law still requires members to admit an unlimited number of migrants from
other EU countries. With the eurozone suffering from dismal economic
performance, a lot of workers from less affluent EU states like Poland and Portugal
have moved to the UK in search of work. There's little Britain's elected officials can
do to stem these flows, and that rubs a lot of British voters the wrong way.
• Large-scale migration of low-wage workers from elsewhere in Europe has depressed
wages for native-born Britons.
• Unrestricted immigration from Europe could lead to greater competition for
government services and even put British women at greater risk of sexual violence.
11. Older and Less Educated Brexit Supporters
• According to one poll, 73 percent of voters between age 18
and 24 voted to stay in the EU, compared to just 40 percent of
voters over age 65. Unfortunately for the Remain campaign,
older voters turned out in greater numbers. So even though
younger people were more pro-EU than older people were
anti-EU, the older voters carried the day.
• And as this chart from the Guardian shows, better educated
voters were more likely to vote to remain in the EU
