The EU Referendum: Who’s Backing Who?

There are few topics looming any larger in the political news this week than the EU referendum. Set to take place on Thursday 23rd June, the referendum will decide whether Britain will remain in the European Union or effect a “Brexit” (British Exit) – and it looks as though it could be a very close result.

Firstly, we must remember that this is not an unprecedented vote. The last EU referendum in Britain was held in 1975, not long after the country joined the Common Market, as it was then known. But a lot has changed since then, and many see the EU as a bureaucratic behemoth imposing its whims on Britain.

But who in the world of politics want to leave? The Labour party is largely backing the “stay” campaign, as are the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Lib Dems, as well as David Cameron, three-quarters of the cabinet and about half of the Conservative members of parliament. In the last week, the biggest stories on the issue have been Mayor of London Boris Johnson’s announcement that he was joining the “Brexit” campaign, as well as Justice Secretary Michael Gove’s claims that the PM’s EU reforms will not be judicially watertight, something which has been disproven rather conclusively.

However, many analysts of the Conservative party claim that the stances taken and claims made have been purely for the sake of political capital: it seems as though either Johnson or Gove will end as the representative of more right-wing values in the party’s post-Cameron leadership ballot, and the opponent of more moderate frontrunner George Osborne for the potential to be the next PM. But that’s another story.