The United Kingdom Votes to Leave the European Union

On Thursday, 23 June 2016, voters across the United Kingdom and Gibraltar went to polling stations to decide whether their country should remain a member of the European Union or leave it. The ballot asked a single question set out in the referendum legislation, offering electors two choices. Although the UK had entered the European Communities in 1973 and endorsed that membership in a 1975 referendum, subsequent integration treaties had been ratified exclusively through Parliament. Rising domestic debate over national sovereignty and the growing electoral influence of the UK Independence Party gradually pushed the issue back into national politics.

Following a pledge made in Prime Minister David Cameron's 2013 Bloomberg speech and the Conservative Party's general election victory in 2015, the government passed the European Union Referendum Act 2015. Cameron sought a renegotiation of British membership terms early in 2016, pursuing adjustments to migrant welfare benefits, sovereignty protections, and economic governance. Backed by these revised arrangements, Cameron officially designated 23 June as polling day and announced that the government recommended remaining. However, he lifted cabinet collective responsibility, permitting ministers and members of Parliament to campaign openly on either side of the question.