Brexit voter statistics

[BercowsSilkTie]

I'm not sure if I can ask this without potentially causing offence but please know that no offence is intended. I'm on the spectrum and things come out wrong sometimes

I've just been watching the Leave march footage and one thing struck me as odd with all that I've heard reported about leavers: a black man in a union jack suit. He might have been waving a flag but can't remember.

The march today is supposedly heavy on the far right extremists/racists. Although I appreciate not all leavers are racist --maybe not consciously anyway.

So I was surprised to see a black man on the march wearing a union jack suit. I expected everyone to be white British with an anti-immigration stance. I shouldn't make assumptions I know.

Surely he would be harshly and probably wrongly judged as "foreign" and those who are anti-immigration are actively wanting to return the country to all white? I can't imagine he would have been made welcome by a lot of the marchers.

This has got me wondering if there are any statistics available on the ethnicity of voters in the referendum. I hold my hands up in not knowing much about who was eligible to vote, so happy to be informed and learn more about it.

The Remain march was a gathering of a huge amount of people from different cultures and places; of different ethnicities, all united in standing to remain united in Europe which is what I expected. The leave march is reminiscent of a football crowd.

I'm tying my head in knots worrying I'm causing offence but I hope I haven't and hope you know what I mean. I'll shut up now

If immigration comes into it at all for me it’s about controlling the numbers and getting skills we require. It’s not about race colour or country of origin.

If someone has skills required by the country be it doctor or nurse, manual labour or builder I would welcome them with open arms if ifs controlled.

The question was are there statistics available on voter ethnicity for the referendum? I'd be interested to see them. There are so many assumptions about both leavers and remainers. Leavers being white, ignorant, thick and racist or rich enough not to care about anyone that Brexit will affect. Remains being the metropolitan elite or whatever is it. I don't know what statistics are collected and can't remember if my ethnicity was asked or recorded when I voted but it would be interesting to see if there were any trends between ethnicity and leave or remain.

I don't know if I can express this well. I haven't yet read the attached Articles which may explain the complexities. My guess would be that austerity and perceptions of unfairness resulting from successive U.K. government policy were misdirected in the referendum regardless of colour, ethnicity or descent?

From a London standpoint knowing lots of people with internationally mobile friends and family I can comment from the people I know who voted Leave two examples are British but of Iranian and Pakistani descent. They aren't active or on demos or anything but fairly committed leavers. In the first case I'm not quite clear why but he has quite a few business interests in the US and stood to make quite a lot of money from moving money around if the pound fell, which it did.

In the second case it's because he was very pro Pakistani and prefers empire linked immigration in preference to French, Italian, German. Polish etc.

Conversely I also know Indian and Iranian descent Remainers who see the fiscal benefits of EU migration.

Having said that I don't think your one isolated example or mine are very helpful. To understand the issue it's best to look at bigger numbers and proper research.

blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2017/02/20/the-british-asian-vote-for-brexit-contains-a-few-surprises/

www.newstatesman.com/politics/brexit/2018/09/britain-s-eight-million-ethnic-minorities-are-still-being-ignored-over

lordashcroftpolls.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/How-the-UK-voted-Full-tables-1.pdf

Thank you lonelyplanetmum. I'll have a look at the link you've given later on. The examples you gave are interesting. My interest in politics is fairly new and I find voter statistics and rationale fascinating.