Lesson video

Hello.

My name's Ms. Ikomi.

I'm going to be taking you through today's lesson.

Let's get started.

Today's lesson is called, "What were the results of the Brexit referendum?" It is part of the wider unit, "How well has the UK adjusted to its changing relationship with the EU?? By the end of today, you will be able to explain the outcome of the referendum on our relationship with the European Union.

The keywords we're going to hear in today's lesson are voter turnout.

This is the number of registered voters who actually vote in an election or a referendum.

The next is the word divisive.

This means creating disunity or disharmony.

And last, the word demographic.

This refers to the statistics that are linked to population or parts of the population such as age, gender, ethnicity.

We're going to start by thinking about what actually was the result of the Brexit referendum.

The Brexit referendum was the referendum where citizens who were eligible to vote in the UK voted on whether the UK should leave the European Union.

The outcome of the referendum was close.

The final result was that around 17.

5 million people voted to leave the European Union versus around 16 million people voted to remain in the European Union.

The percentage was very close.

Leave vote was about 51.

89% versus remain which was 48.

11%.

Andeep is asking a question, "Does the voter turnout and the amount of votes actually matter? We had a winner, so therefore the vote should be respected." Some people argue that because the result was very close, this looked a bit different to previous referendums that we'd had in the UK.

For example, in 2011, nearly 68% of people said no to the Alternative Vote system.

This referendum gave people the opportunity to choose on whether they wanted to change the voting system.

We can see that 68% was a very clear majority.

True or false? The Brexit referendum was close, unlike previous referendums. Pause the video and choose your answer now.

The correct answer is false.

This is because the 2016 result was closer than normal.

52% of people voted to leave.

48% of people voted to remain.

However, 28% of people did not vote.

The question that we were asked in this referendum was, should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union? The referendum took place on the 23rd of June 2016.

Counting took place straight away.

From this count, we were able to see how many people actually came out to vote on that day.

The voter turnout was 72%.

If the voter turnout was 72%, we can use that to see that 28% of people who could vote chose not to vote.

That's more than a quarter of voters.

Although 72% sounds like a lot, 28% of people not casting their vote is actually quite high.

Although saying that, this is still higher than the voter turnout for the 2019 general election, which was 67.

3%, so we can see there are lots of examples of people who are able to vote that are not using their vote for a variety of reasons.

It's important for us to think about voter turnout because we can tell how engaged a population is with politics and the key decisions that are going to have an impact on them.

Voter turnout can be affected by lots of different factors.

Voter engagement with the issue, do they care about the thing that they are being asked to vote on? The length of the campaign and how put off people are by these campaigns.

If it goes on for too long, people might not necessarily be interested anymore.

Campaigns spend lots of money trying to remind people to vote, so that might impact whether or not they go out and vote during that period of time or on that day.

The period leading up to the referendum had been very divisive.

That meant that there was uncertainty and lots of divisions between people and their points of view on this issue.

Politicians from both sides of the debate accuse the other side of lying and trying to scare people.

The campaigns from both side have put some people off voting.

They couldn't decide who was telling the truth, so they decided not to vote.

Some politicians were also accused of lying for their own personal gain rather than the gain of the people who were voting.

The referendum campaign began in February 2016 when the Prime Minister announced that the referendum would be held.

Officially, both campaigns were allowed to campaign from April to June.

The reason that we have a limited time officially where people can campaign is because long campaigns can lead to something called voter fatigue.

Fatigue is where you feel tired of something.

People might get fatigue from hearing too much from politicians, that might result in the issue becoming overexposed.

This could cause people to lose interest in the ongoing debate, which is why we have this limited period of time.

The Electoral Commission reported that both sides spent lots of money in the campaign.

In total, the campaign for remaining in the EU spent over 19 million pounds.

The campaign campaigning to leave the EU spent over 13 million pounds.

Campaigns that invest heavily in funding aim to encourage their supporters to vote and also work to persuade undecided voters to choose their side.

Let's do another check.

Voter turnout is important in elections.

Which of these is not a factor that impacted the Brexit referendum? A, the day of the week the election was held on.

B, voter engagement in the issue.

Or C, how well informed people are about the issue.

Pause your video and choose your answer.

The correct answer is A.

Let's put this into practise.

We're going to think about the voter turnout of the Brexit referendum.

I'd like you to explain the impact that each of these factors had on that turnout.

The first one has been started for you.

Pause your video and have a go at this now, then we'll come back and check your answers.

I asked you to explain the impacts that each factor might have had on the Brexit referendum voter turnout.

The first factor you were thinking about was the fact that group spent lots of money on the campaign.

The total reported spending was more than 32 million pounds.

The impact of this is that if groups spend money to try and increase turnout, it could be a way of motivating people to vote.

It reminds them to do so.

However, it could also put people off because they might receive lots of leaflets and targeted adverts, which can make them feel fatigued.

Next factor was the fact that the campaign was very divisive.

Politicians spent a long time arguing about why they were right.

The impact of this was that people were unsure about who was telling the truth and who was not.

A divisive campaign meant that people just heard lots of arguing about the same issues.

That might have put them off voting.

The final factor we're thinking about was the fact that the campaign was long.

Some people started it in February, meaning people had nearly five months of hearing about the referendum.

The impact of this is that long campaigns can make voters feel fed up of hearing about the issue.

They switch off because they've made their mind.

They might also be really unsure because they've heard so much information over this period of time, so aren't sure anymore.

Next, we're going to think about how the results differed across different parts of the UK.

The referendum results varied greatly according to different areas and geographical regions.

The countries of the United Kingdom voted very differently to each other.

It is reminding us that the countries that make up the United Kingdom are Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

England has the largest electorate.

This is all the people that are eligible to vote in an election.

This is because it has the largest population of the four nations within the UK.

There were almost 39 million eligible voters in England at that time.

53% of people in England voted to leave the European Union.

That means that overall, England voted to leave the EU.

Scotland has the second largest electorate.

There were almost four million eligible voters in Scotland at that time.

62% of people in Scotland voted to remain in the European Union.

That means overall, Scotland voted to remain in the EU.

Wales had the third largest electorate in the UK.

There were just over two million eligible voters in Wales.

52.

5% of people in Wales voted to leave the European Union, so overall, Wales voted to leave the EU.

Northern Ireland had the fourth biggest electorate in the UK.

There were over one million eligible voters in Northern Ireland.

55.

7% of people in Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU, so overall, Northern Ireland voted to remain.

We can see here that we had a division between different nations and whether they voted to leave or remain, with England and Wales voting to leave and Scotland and Northern Ireland voting to remain.

Let's do a practise.

Which countries of the United Kingdom voted to remain in the EU? Was it England and Scotland, Scotland and Northern Ireland, or Wales and Northern Ireland? Pause your video and choose your answer.

The correct answer is B, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The results in England varied as well.

Although the highest vote was to leave, there were lots of differences in how different cities voted within England.

Sofia's telling us, "Cities in England tend to be 75,000 or more people, although some cities have more than 200,000 people.

There are over nine million people living in Greater London." London is England's largest city and there were over three million people who voted in referendum.

Andeep is telling us, "London was the highest remain voting place in the UK with 60% of people voting to remain." Stoke-on-Trent had the highest leave vote in the UK.

Jacob's telling us, "Stoke-on-Trent saw 69% of voters opting to leave the EU." Regional differences in Brexit votes have lots of reasons.

Some of them are very complex, however, not very well studied.

However, there are some patterns that have been looked at that tell us interesting things about voting.

Some of the trends that we saw were linked to different demographics, so different categorizations of the population within the UK.

Andeep is reminding us, "Demographics are statistics linked to population, such as age." Some possible trends that we saw include: the fact that in leave votes, we saw a higher prevalence of this within deindustrialised house, places that had lost industries, such as steel making; also in rural regions, places that had lots of farms or small villages; and also within the older population, towns and cities where older people were more likely to live also were more likely to vote leave.

The remain vote was more associated with prosperous cities like London, had strong economies and closer links to Europe.

Urban locations, cities which were heavily urbanised tended to vote remain, although there were exceptions to this.

And also younger populations, towns and cities with universities tended to vote remain.

Let's do another check.

What type of places tended to vote remain? Was it A, cities with universities which tend to have a younger population? B, deindustrialised towns where their industries have closed down? Or C, older people in the countryside? Pause your video and choose your answer.

The correct answer is A.

Let's put this into practise.

Aisha is telling us, "Leeds is as an urban population centre in the north of England.

Although it has gone through many changes, it has a successful financial and legal industry.

Leeds has two large universities and a younger population living in the city centre." Based on Aisha's description, I'd like you to explain why the majority of people in Leeds might be more likely to vote remain.

Make sure you reference demographics and the result for England where Leeds is situated.

Pause your video and have a go at this.

I asked you to describe why somewhere like Leeds might be more likely to have voted remain.

You might have said, "The majority of voters in England voted to leave the EU, but the majority of voters in Leeds voted to remain.

There could be lots of reasons for this.

Firstly, Leeds has two universities, which means it has a younger population.

Leeds has created lots of new jobs by attracting the finance and legal industries to the city.

Leeds is an urban area.

These areas tended to vote remain rather than leave." Well done if you included some of that in your answer.

Last, we're going to think about another demographic factor.

How did the results differ across different age ranges? Age can influence voting patterns, not just in terms of referendums, but in other votes too.

Research shows that there is a link between age and voting behaviour.

As individuals grow older and their financial situation changes, they may favour low tax parties, such as the Conservatives.

In the 2019 general election, 67% of voters over 70 supported the Conservatives, while 56% of 18 to 24-year-olds backed Labour.

In the EU referendum, age was also one of the factors that appeared to influence voting decisions.

Leave voters tended to be aged 45 and over, whereas remain voters tended to be 44 and under.

We can see on this graph how that is demonstrated.

We can see the blue bars are remain and the red bars are leave.

The red bars get higher as you go through the age voters and the blue bars get lower as you go through the age votes.

Let's put this into practise.

True or false? Older voters tended to vote remain.

Pause your video and choose your answer.

The correct answer is false.

This is because younger voters tended to vote remain, older voters tended to vote to leave.

Age is also an important factor in thinking about voter turnout.

Data from a Sky Poll showed that 18 to 24-year-olds were less likely to vote than those who were aged 65 and over.

Fewer people voted in the referendum than voted in the 2015 general election the year before.

While polling data shows that voters in older age groups were more likely to vote leave, it is still really important to avoid generalisation.

People within any age group can vote any way that they want to and they have different reasons for those choices.

We can see this in the following two viewpoints.

Someone might say, "I voted to leave because I think the UK should have more control over its laws and borders.

I think we can do better on our own." The other side is, "I voted to remain because I worry about the economy and the benefits of being part of a larger peaceful union.

I think we're stronger together." Age doesn't necessarily have to demonstrate each of these views.

You make your choices based on lots of factors that impact you.

Izzy's telling us, "Age was a really important factor.

Polling shows that young people were more likely to vote remain, but that less of them voted." This is bringing up an important point.

The fact that fewer young people voted shows us that some of the people who are most likely to be impacted by Brexit were least likely to vote in the referendum.

So this draws attention to the importance of voter turnout.

True or false? Age was not a factor in the referendum result.

Pause your video and choose your answer.

The correct answer is false.

This is because we could see differences in ages and who they were more likely to vote for.

Leave voters tended to be aged over 45, whereas remain voters tended to be aged under 45.

Let's put this into practise.

Those aged 16 to 25 are the reason for the referendum result.

I'd like you to give one argument for and one argument against this statement.

Pause your video and have a go at this now.

I asked you to think of an argument for and against the statement that those aged 16 to 25 are the reason for the referendum result.

You might have said, "People might agree because younger voters did not turn out to vote in the same numbers as older voters.

Older voters were more likely to vote leave than remain, therefore explaining the result.

However, other people may argue that age was not the only factor.

Urban voters were more likely to vote remain, whereas rural voters were more likely to vote leave." So that might show a reason for the results.

Today, we have been thinking about what were the results of the Brexit referendum.

We have learned that in 2016, the UK voted to leave the European Union.

This was the result of the referendum in which 72% of voters turned out to vote.

Many factors influenced the result.

Polling data suggests that the younger demographic were more likely to vote, remain and less likely to vote in general.

Rural demographics were more likely to vote leave.

The nations of the UK were also divided.

Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain, whereas England and Wales voted to leave.

This was a divisive referendum, meaning that there were lots of different opinions on each side.

That's the end of today's lesson.

Thank you for joining me.