To leave or not to leave: Brexit debate polarises British voters, politicians

It has been a campaign like no other, marred by insults, and accusations of deception and outright lying to a public that’s polarised by both sides of the debate. One that wants Britain to remain in the European Union, and the other side that sees the vote on 23 June as the most important and Britain’s best opportunity to get out of the European Union. And it’s a polarisation that has cut across party lines.

While Prime Minister David Cameron has been spearheading the campaign for Britain to stay in the European Union, his fellow Tory and former Mayor of London Boris Johnson has been one of the most vocal voices in the “Vote Leave” camp. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and actress Elizabeth Hurley have also pitched their wagon to the “Vote Leave.” At this point, as per the average of the latest six polls by What UK Thinks, the vote is even split at 51 percent and 49 percent between Remain and Leave.

Cameron has made it clear that a vote in favour of Britain leaving the EU would be disastrous for the economic health of the country. He argued, “They say we would have more control. How exactly? Leaving the EU but remaining in the single market doesn’t give us more control, it just stops us from having any say over the rules of trade.”

Boris Johnson, in a debate at Wembley in front of an audience of 6,000, said that a Brexit victory would be Britain’s Independence Day. Sadiq Khan, the current mayor of London , called out the lies of Boris Johnson and the rest of the Leave camp for stoking the fears of a population dishonestly by claiming that Turkey would be part of the EU. In the most recent past days and weeks, everyone from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the French President Francois Hollande, while being clear about their hope that the EU would be firmer and stronger with a Britain in it, have also stated publicly that Turkey would not be a member of the EU, at the rate at which it is developing.

Public personalities on the side of Remain have also chimed in. Stephen Hawking has stated that “leaving the EU would be a disaster for science,” and the author JK Rowling while stating that she doesn’t think the EU’s perfect, simply believes that its benefits greatly outweigh the negatives.

In cities and towns across Britain, both campaigns have stepped up especially in their volunteering and pamphleteering. Immigration, especially in the aftermath of the Syrian refugee crisis is contentious. The Leave camp claims that as long as Britain remains part of the EU, it would be impossible to control immigration, and public services especially the National Health Service (NHS) would be under tremendous strain as a result of the inflow of immigrants. Remain counters that by arguing that immigrants pay more in taxes than they take out of the system, and that the economy improves when there is immigration.

The campaign took an unfortunate and horrific turn on 16 June, when Labour MP Jo Cox was brutally murdered by a man who shouted “Britain First”, a slogan and a name of a Far-Right party and movement, on stabbing and shooting her. It was the most heinous and most violent of a terrorist act and put to light the worst elements of the whole vote. Cox worked for immigrant rights, and campaigned diligently for Britain to remain in the EU. There is a tension in the air, reminiscent of the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014, when the Scots voted to remain in the UK.

In an opinion piece for The Guardian , Paul Mason argues that Brexit is a fake revolt where the culture of the working class is being hijacked to help the elites. While he agrees that migration is a right cause of worry for the working class, with wages and overall living conditions having remained stagnant, and employment opportunities dwindling, he doesn’t think a victory for the Leave camp will solve any of the problems that are affecting the working and also the middle classes. The fact that no politician in the Tory Brexit has offered any solutions to the main problem of low wages and cheap labour is the most concerning point.

In Oxford, both campaigns are working overtime to try and get as many people to vote. Adam Kenny, 24, a DPhil-in-Anthropology student at Oxford University, has been campaigning for the Remain camp. He says, “It makes more sense economically for Britain to remain in the EU because we will be less poor in the short term, butt more importantly, a moral argument can be made that progress can only happen with greater cooperation with the European Union.”

An argument with which Jacob Williams, a 21-year-old student who has just completed his final exams at the same university, disagrees. “The European Union is undemocratic, and the current amount of immigration is unsustainable.” Actively campaigning for Leave, he says that a an exit would mean more cooperation with the rest of the world and not just the EU.