Anthony Scholefield: are things moving in our direction?

Anthony Scholefield, Vice Chairman of the Campaign for an Independent Britain, discussed the prospects for a Leave vote in the EU referendum with the CIB website director.

“There is something in the air.  There seems to be a feeling about that a good number of voters have moved from uncertainty to supporting the idea of leaving. This feeling has been encouraged, of course, by the badly received proposals of David Cameron.

“The latest YouGov poll shows a reasonable lead for the Leave campaign for the first time.  But this is polling the potential electorate, not the likely electorate.  ‘Leave’ is now far ahead among the over 60s while ‘Remain’ is still well ahead in the 18-24 age group.  Plainly, turnout history of the two groups favours the Leave side.  It is worth recording that in the 1975 EU referendum, there was a 67% vote to stay in the Common Market.  Not a single poll in recent times has had the Remain-in side above 60%.

“Only in Scotland is the overall Remain-in camp well ahead and this will make a difference if the referendum result is close.

“Being kept in the EU by Scottish voters, that is likely to create a massive political problem but, in the recent YouGov poll, the Remain side is falling back even in Scotland.”