LONDON
Come 7am on Thursday morning, all of the talking will be done — and all that remains will be for 45 million Britons to decide should their country Remain of Leave the European Union.
After months of anticipation and weeks of campaigning, both sides are finely poised, according to the latest opinion polls.
“The opinion polls are showing that this is an incredibly tight vote,” Professor John Curtice, a political scientist at Strathclyde University said yesterday, adding that there’s a volatility in the electorate that has emerged ever since the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox on Thursday and reaction to a hardened anti-immigration stance by the United Kingdom’s Independence Party (Ukip) that coincided with the killing.
On Thursday last, Remain were trailing by 53 to 47 per cent in most polls. Now, most polls are showing the exact opposite, with 53 per cent backing Remain and 47 for Leave. And analysts like Curtice believe the estimated 13 per cent who have yet to make up their mind will decide Britain’s future in or out of the EU.
“All of the signs of ORB’s latest and final poll point to a referendum that will truly come down to the wire,” Lynton Crosby, a political strategist for the Conservative party said yesterday. The ORB telephone poll was conducted for the Daily Telegraph newspaper, and also reflected the turn in tide back to the Remain side over the past week.
And the reason for the closeness of the vote? According to Crosby, Leave had failed to convince voters fully that its option did not have too much risk attached to it.
If the campaign now is in the final hours, one man who is well experienced in dramatic extra time wins is former Manchester United football star David Beckham. The former England talisman came out yesterday morning firmly on the Remain side, saying that his career had been enhanced by the number of European footballers in the sport.
The reaction from Leave supporters on social media was that he was “bending” the truth, and that’s just like Beckham.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling also stepped into the debate, saying that the supporters of the so-called Brexit option were peddling inaccuracies on immigration.
“For many of our countrymen, I suspect a Leave vote will be a simple howl of frustration, a giant two fingers to the spectres that haunt our imaginations,” Rowling wrote.
The campaign has become increasingly bitter and divisive as Thursday’s polling approaches.
Police in Carlisle in northern England arrested a 52-year-old man after a fight in a local department store. The physical dispute was fuelled by debate over the referendum, and a 77-year-old was hit in the face.
On Monday afternoon, politicians from all parties forgot their differences and were united in paying tributes and condolences to the murder Cox. Parliament was recalled to allow MPs to express their sadness at the murder of the ardent support of Syrian refugees and the Remain side.
She was killed by a man who shouted anti-EU expletives while shooting and knifing her to death.
