UK debate on Brexit referendum intensifies

Global Business

Protesters in London

In the United Kingdom, countdown to the EU referendum has seen campaign rhetoric intensify and warnings of economic fallout more dire. CCTV’s Richard Bestic reported from London on why U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron is taking what some see as a huge gamble with the future of both Britain – and the EU.

On Britain’s streets tempers are becoming frayed, as make-up- time approaches. At the heart of the debate, fears Europe’s Freedom of Movement rules mean U.K. immigration is out of control. 

The latest figures show a third of a million more people came to live in the U.K. last year than left to live abroad – up 20,000 on the year before. 

British immigration statistics

They’re the kind of figures that pressured U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron in the 2010 general election to promise of an ‘in out’ referendum. 

Campaigning under the slogan ‘We want our country back’ anti-EU argument has struck a chord.  

“I voted yes to join in the 70’s a six-country trading agreement, not to be this huge, governmental system that’s becoming out of control,” said one London protester.

In the fields of northern England, however, there is heavy concern that losing a steady supply of farm workers from the EU may create a labor shortage. 

“My biggest worry about Brexit, is access to labor. In the packing side of business, with my tractors – without them [migrant workers], I can’t do the job,” farmer Guty Poskit said.

In Scotland, they’re already thinking about making another break for independence, should the rest of the U.K. vote to leave the EU. 

With the EU suffering economic malaise, high unemployment and its southern borders gripped in an unprecedented migrant crisis, there are fears for the future of the wider European enterprise. 

The stakes in Britain’s EU referendum really couldn’t be greater.