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European Union Referendum Polls: Brexit Surges In Polls After ‘The Sun’ Endorses ‘Leave’ Option

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 04:59 PST, Jun 16, 2016

The European Union’s referendum polls are showing momentum toward the so-called Brexit, with growing numbers in Britain supporting the referendum to leave membership in the union.

The June 23 referendum will ask voters whether to “Leave” the European Union or “Remain,” and with now just one week before the vote itself, there appears to be some movement toward the option to leave. Though European Union referendum polls had been tight to date, the latest poll from YouGov (via Reuters) showed 46 percent support for “Leave” and 39 percent support for “Remain.”

The latest European Union referendum poll showed quite a bit of difference in just the last week. Last Monday, a survey from The Times/YouGov showed a slim 1 percent lead for the “Remain” campaign.

But there seems to be growing momentum for the “Leave” campaign, as media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun newspaper came out in public support of the efforts to abandon the European Union. The paper ran the headline “BeLEAVE in Britain” on its front page and included an editorial saying that Britain would be “even greater” by backing out of the 43-year relationship.

“Outside the EU we can become richer, safer, and free at long last to forge our own destiny — as America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many other great democracies already do. And as we were the first to do centuries ago,” the Sun’s editorial noted.

“If we stay, Britain will be engulfed in a few short years by this relentlessly expanding, German-dominated federal state.”

The editorial went on to say that remaining in the European Union would leave Britain powerless to cut mass immigration, which is pushing wages lower and putting undue pressure on the nation’s infrastructure. It also claimed that the “Remain” campaign was relying on fear mongering to stir up support.

“The Remain campaign, made up of the corporate establishment, arrogant europhiles and foreign banks, have set out to terrify us all about life outside the EU.

“Their ‘Project Fear’ strategy predicts mass unemployment, soaring interest rates and inflation, plummeting house prices, even world war.”

The Sun endorsement could carry quite a bit of weight, as Murdoch has a track record of successfully backing political causes in the U.K.

But the Sun still has a spotty reputation across Britain, dating back to its role in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, when the paper blamed Liverpool fans for causing the disaster. As the Independent noted, it has led to harsh feelings still close to 30 years later.

“News UK had been engulfed in accusations of irresponsible reporting before, when The Sun told its readers that Liverpool fans had thieved and urinated on victims of the Hillsborough stadium disaster in Sheffield in 1989 – with the effect that the paper is boycotted by many Liverpudlians to this day, vindicated by the recent ruling that police were largely at fault for the event and the headline was completely false.

“But such incidents have not stopped Mr Murdoch’s paper — which now has 13.6 million readers in print and online — and it is widely credited for leading British voters to reject Labour’s Neil Kinnock and reinstate Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party in 1992.”

With the European Union referendum polls hanging tight so far, there is still a chance that the remaining week could see more movement. The latest poll found that 11 percent of voters were still undecided, though when the undecided option was taken out it showed a greater margin of victory for Brexit.

[Photo by Matt Dunham/AP Images]

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