Campaigning in the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016

Campaigning in the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum began unofficially on Saturday 20 February 2016 when Prime Minister David Cameron formally announced under the terms of the European Union Referendum Act 2015 that a referendum would be held on the issue of the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union. The issue of EU membership has been controversial since the UK joined then then EEC back on January 1 1973. The official campaign period for the referendum will run from Friday 15 April 2016 until the day of the poll on Thursday 23 June 2016.

Position of political parties

Position Political parties Ref
Remain Alliance Party [1][2]
Green Party England and Wales [3]
Northern Ireland [4]
Scotland [5]
Labour Party [6][7]
Liberal Democrats [8]
NI21 [9]
Plaid Cymru [10]
Scottish National Party (SNP) [11][12]
Sinn Féin [13]
Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) [14]
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) [15]
Leave
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) [16][17]
Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) [18]
UK Independence Party (UKIP) [19]
Neutral Conservative Party [20]

Designation of official campaign groups

The Electoral Commission officially announced the designated campaign groups for the leave and remain sides on April 13, 2016, two days before the official ten week campaign period began.[21] At the close of applications on March 31 only Britain Stronger in Europe had applied for the "remain" designation but the commission had received three applications for the official "leave" designation.[22]

Remain Groups

Britain Stronger in Europe

Britain Stronger in Europe (formally The In Campaign Ltd) is a lobbying group campaigning for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union in the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016. It was launched at the Truman Brewery in London on 12 October 2015 and declared as the official "Remain" campaign for the referendum by the Electoral Commission on 13 April 2016.

Leave Groups

Vote Leave

Vote Leave is an organisation that campaigns for Britain to leave the European Union. On 13 April 2016, Vote Leave was designated by the Electoral Commission as the official campaign in favour of leaving the European Union for the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. Vote Leave was created in October 2015 and is a cross-party campaign, including members of Parliament from Conservatives, Labour, and UKIP.

Leave.EU

Leave.EU is an organisation campaigning for the Leave vote in the upcoming United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. Founded in July 2015 as The Know,the campaign was relaunched in September with its present name to reflect altered wording in the referendum question. The campaign, along with rival organisation Vote Leave, aimed to be formally designated as the lead campaign for the Leave vote by the Electoral Commission; however, on 13 April 2016, Vote Leave was designated by the Electoral Commission as the official campaign

Grassroots Out

Grassroots Out was formed in January 2016 as a result of infighting between Vote Leave and Leave.EU and officially launched on 23 January 2016 in Kettering. Despite its name, it was started by politicians from a mixture of political parties including Peter Bone, Tom Pursglove, Liam Fox of the Conservatives, Kate Hoey of Labour, Nigel Farage of UKIP and Sammy Wilson of the DUP.

Campaign Anthems

Both the Remain and Leave campaigns have released songs to promote their messages. Gruff Rhys for the Remain team entitles his song I love EU . For the Leave campaign, UKIP Parliamentary Candidate Mandy Boylett created a parody of the Three Lions anthem.[23] David Baddiel, who penned the original Three Lions, described this version as "brilliantly naff".[24]

Individual endorsements

A number of politicians, public figures, newspapers and magazines, businesses and other organisations endorsed an official position during the Referendum campaign. These are listed in the article above.

Campaigning in Gibraltar

Unlike all other British overseas territories, Gibraltar is part of the UK's EU membership and consequently the territory will participate in the referendum. As of March 2016, all major parties within the Gibraltarian parliament support a "remain" vote.

References

  1. ↑ "Dickson – An EU referendum will threaten jobs and investment in Northern Ireland". allianceparty.org. Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. 14 May 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  2. ↑ "Alliance expresses concerns over referendum idea". allianceparty.org. Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. 29 April 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  3. ↑ "Policy: Europe". greenparty.org.uk. Green Party.
  4. ↑ Staff writer (February 2014). Green Party in Northern Ireland: Manifesto 2015 (PDF). greenpartyni.org (Green Party in Northern Ireland). Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  5. ↑ Greer, Ross (10 October 2015). "EU Referendum: Greens to Make Progressive Case for Membership". Scottish Green Party. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  6. ↑ Wintour, Patrick (2 June 2015). "Andy Burnham pushes Labour to set up separate pro-European Union campaign | Politics". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  7. ↑ Patrick Wintour. "Alan Johnson to head Labour Yes campaign for EU referendum | Politics". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  8. ↑ Staff writer (9 May 2014). "Nick Clegg: Pro-Europeans are the real reformers now". libdems.org.uk. Liberal Democrats. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  9. ↑ McCallister, John (26 March 2014). "Anna Lo has right to aspire to united Ireland but the Alliance member has dragged us back into tribal politics". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  10. ↑ Staff writer. "Europe". partyof.wales. Plaid Cymru.
  11. ↑ Staff writer (2 June 2015). "Nicola Sturgeon warns of EU exit 'backlash'". BBC News (BBC). Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  12. ↑ "Alex Salmond: I'll campaign with Tories to stay in EU". The Telegraph. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  13. ↑ Staff writer (20 April 2015). "Sinn Fein to protect EU membership". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  14. ↑ SDLP. "International Affairs". Social Democratic and Labour Party. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  15. ↑ UUP. "Statement from the Ulster Unionist Party on EU Referendum". Ulster Unionist Party. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  16. ↑ Cromie, Claire (25 November 2015). "EU referendum: DUP gives backing to Ukip Brexit campaign, blasting David Cameron's 'pathetic demands'". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  17. ↑ Staff writer (20 February 2016). "DUP to ‘recommend vote to leave the EU’". The News Letter (Belfast).
  18. ↑ Staff writer. "EU Membership is a Matter for UK Citizens, Not US President". tuv.org.uk. Traditional Unionist Voice.
  19. ↑ UKIP. "Home page". ukip.org. UK Independence Party.
  20. ↑ Hope, Christopher (21 September 2015). "Conservative Party to stay neutral during EU referendum". The Telegraph. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
  21. ↑ Lead EU referendum campaigns named  – BBC, 13 April 2016
  22. ↑ Gavin Stamp (1 April 2016). "EU referendum: Leave campaigns face left-wing rival". BBC News. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  23. ↑ "Video shows Ukip's Mandy Boylett spoof Three Lions to sing Britain's Coming Home". Mail Online. 24 February 2016.
  24. ↑ Michael Wilkinson (23 February 2016). "Ukip's anti-EU Three Lions parody song 'Britain's Coming Home' wins backing of David Baddiel for being 'brilliantly naff'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
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