Vote Leave's notorious £350 million lie.
Both the main political parties in the UK seem to have accepted the result of the BREXIT referendum held in June and repeat continuously that ‘the will of the people’ must be observed. This despite the fact that the UK was more or less split down the middle – of those voting 51.9% were in favour of leaving and 48.1% wanted to remain in the EU. The majority was 1,269,501 votes. While the turnout was high by the standard of recent general elections it was still only 72.2% of those registered to vote (the electorate was 46,500,000). So more than a quarter of those on the electoral register did not vote – some 13 million people.
It needs also to be recalled that the Electoral Commission estimates that some 2 million people have disappeared from the register and that those not now included are mainly ethnic minorities and the poor. Changes in registration processes for students introduced by the Cameron government must have reduced the numbers on the register and thus affected the remain vote (in the age group 18-24 the remain % was 64). One of the other factors reducing numbers on the register has been the growth of those on short term tenancies where constant changes in residence have affected the propensity to register. Evidence suggests that this group (of renters aged 25-39) were also heavily in favour of remain (some 65%). Furthermore the Bill establishing the referendum deliberately excluded some 2 million British citizens resident overseas – most of whom would almost certainly have voted to remain. The Bill also excluded those aged 16/17 who numbered 1.6million – those who would be most affected in the long term by BREXIT.
