UK: Pressure group slams ‘dire’ Brexit vote tactics

LONDON

Britain’s EU membership referendum was afflicted by “glaring democratic deficiencies” and voters were left feeling ill-informed before the “dire” June 23 poll, a pressure group has found.

The Electoral Reform Society (ERS) on Thursday said Britain needed a complete rethink about the role of referendums after some parts of the country held three major votes in the space of five years.

People in the U.K. voted by a 52-48 percent margin to leave the European Union in June 2016, nearly five years after a nationwide referendum on changing the House of Commons electoral system.

Voters in Scotland also took part in a referendum on independence in 2014.

“Instead of jumping from referendum to referendum at the whim of party politics, we should think carefully about how referendums fit into our wider democracy,” the ERS report, published on Thursday, said.

“There were glaring democratic deficiencies in the run-up to the [Brexit] vote, with previously unreleased polling showing that far too many people felt they were ill-informed about the issues; and that the ‘big beast’ personalities did not appear to engage or convince voters.”

The report found both the Leave and Remain campaigns turned negative in the weeks leading to June’s EU referendum and that high-profile figures, including then-prime minister David Cameron, left voters confused.

There were too many negative adverts and many voters did not feel they knew all the facts, it added.

ERS chief executive Katie Ghose said: “It's time for a root and branch review of referendums, learning the lessons of the EU campaign to make sure the mistakes that were made in terms of regulation, tone and conduct are never repeated.”