Campaigning in the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum began unofficially on 20 February 2016 when Prime Minister

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

formally announced under the terms of the

European Union Referendum Act 2015 The European Union Referendum Act 2015c. 36 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made legal provision for a consultative referendum to be held in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar, on whether it should remain a member state ...

that a referendum would be held on the issue of the United Kingdom's membership of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

. The official campaign period for the 2016 referendum ran from 15 April 2016 until the day of the poll on 23 June 2016.

Position of political parties

Designation of official campaign groups

At the close of applications on 31 March only Britain Stronger in Europe had applied to the

Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

for the official "remain" designation. Three competing applications were submitted for the official "leave" designation. The

announced the designated campaign groups for the leave and remain sides on 13 April 2016, two days before the official ten-week campaign period began. * Designated official leading Remain campaigning group: Britain Stronger in Europe * Designated official leading Leave campaigning group:

Vote Leave Vote Leave was a campaigning organisation that supported a "Leave" vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. On 13 April 2016 it was designated by the Electoral Commission as the official campaign in favour of leavi ...

Remain groups

The Remain Campaign was led by Britain Stronger in Europe, a cross-party lobbying group that was declared as the official "Remain" campaign for the referendum by the

. However, there were a number of other groups that were involved in leading more specialist campaigns.

Leave groups

The London School of Economics Library has established a collection of referendum leaflets from the remain groups.

Vote Leave

was the lead organisation campaigning for a leave vote in the referendum. On 13 April 2016, Vote Leave was designated by the

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 was a cross-party campaign, including members of Parliament from the Conservatives, Labour and UKIP. Paul Marshall, a

hedge fund A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as shor ...

manager, gave £100,000 to Vote Leave.

Leave.EU

Leave.EU Leave.EU was a political campaign group that was first established to support the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union in the June 2016 referendum. Founded in July 2015 as The Know, the campaign was relaunched in September of th ...

campaigned for a Leave vote, and tried to become the lead campaigner. Founded in July 2015 as The Know, the campaign was relaunched in September 2015 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. On 13 April 2016, Vote Leave was designated by the Electoral Commission as the official campaign.

Grassroots Out

Grassroots Out Grassroots Out (GO) was an organisation funded by Arron Banks that campaigned in favour of EU withdrawal in the 2016 referendum on EU membership in the United Kingdom. The organisation was formed in January 2016, as a result of infighting bet ...

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 Kettering is a market and industrial town in North Northamptonshire, England. It is located north of London and north-east of Northampton, west of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene. The name means "the place (or territory) of ...

. Despite its name, it was started by politicians from a mixture of political parties, including

Peter Bone Peter William Bone (born 19 October 1952) is a British Conservative Party politician who served as Deputy Leader of the House of Commons in 2022. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wellingborough since 2005. He campaigned for Brexi ...

Tom Pursglove Thomas Christopher John Pursglove (born 5 November 1988) is a British politician serving as Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work. He served as Minister of State for Immigration from September 2022 to October 2022. He served as ...

and

Liam Fox Liam Fox (born 22 September 1961) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for International Trade from 2016 to 2019 and Secretary of State for Defence from 2010 to 2011. A member of the Conservative Party, Fox has served as t ...

from the Conservatives,

Kate Hoey Catharine Letitia Hoey, Baroness Hoey (born 21 June 1946), better known as Kate Hoey, is a Northern Irish politician and life peer who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Home Affairs from 1998 to 1999 and Minister for Sport from 1999 ...

from Labour,

Nigel Farage Nigel Paul Farage (; born 3 April 1964) is a British broadcaster and former politician who was Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2006 to 2009 and 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Brexit Party (renamed Reform UK in 2021) from 20 ...

from UKIP, Sammy Wilson from the DUP and

George Galloway George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer who is currently leader of the Workers Party of Britain, serving since 2019. Between 1987 and 2010, and then between 2012 and 2015, Galloway was a Member ...

from Respect.

Labour Leave

Labour Leave Labour Leave is a Eurosceptic campaign group in the United Kingdom. The group is unofficially affiliated with the Labour Party, and campaigned for the United Kingdom to vote to withdraw from the European Union, in the June 2016 EU Referendum. ...

campaigned within the Labour Party against the United Kingdom's continued membership of the European Union and was led by Labour MPs including

Graham Stringer Graham Eric Stringer (born 17 February 1950) is a British Labour Party politician serving as MP for Blackley and Broughton since 1997. Before entering Parliament, he served as leader of Manchester City Council from 1984 to 1996, and chair of ...

Kelvin Hopkins Kelvin Peter Hopkins (born 22 August 1941) is a British politician. He was first elected as the Labour Member of Parliament for Luton North in 1997. Hopkins was suspended by the Labour Party in 2017 after allegations of sexual misconduct wer ...

, and

Roger Godsiff Roger Duncan Godsiff (born 28 June 1946) is a British former politician who served as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) from 1992 to 2019, for the seats of Birmingham Small Heath, Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath, and Birmingham Hal ...

Left Leave

Left Leave was a left-wing group campaigning for the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. It was made up of a coalition of left-wing political parties and organisations, such as the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

, the

Respect Party The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left, socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons and nineteen ...

and the

National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (commonly known as the RMT) is a British trade union covering the transport sector. Its current President is Alex Gordon and its current General Secretary is Mick Lynch. The RMT is on ...

. The Left Leave campaign was chaired by Robert Griffiths, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Trade Union and Socialist Coalition

The

Trade Union and Socialist Coalition Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is a socialist electoral alliance launched in Britain for the 2010 general election. TUSC's co-founder was the RMT union general secretary Bob Crow. Members of the PCS, NUT, FBU and POA uni ...

also applied to be the official "leave" campaign. It purported to represent anti-austerity campaigners who wished to leave the EU, rather than other leave groups who represent "pro-business" views.

Green Leaves

Within the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

(which supported Remain), this was an organisation of Green Party members who campaigned to leave the EU. Baroness Jenny Jones, the Leader of the Green Party in the House of Lords, was a supporter.

Liberal Leave

Within the Liberal Democrats (who supported Remain), this was a campaign group of Liberal Democrat activists who wanted to leave the EU, including councillors and the former MP for

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

Paul Keetch Paul Stuart Keetch (21 May 1961 – 24 May 2017) was a Liberal Democrat politician and lobbyist who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hereford from 1997 to 2010. Early life He went to Hereford High School for Boys (now Aylestone Busines ...

. They were also supported by the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

Campaign anthems

Both the Remain and Leave campaigns have released ''songs'' to promote their messages.

Gruff Rhys Gruffudd Maredudd Bowen Rhys (; born 18 July 1970) is a Welsh musician, composer, producer, filmmaker and author. He performs solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals, which obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He forme ...

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;

David Baddiel David Lionel Baddiel (; born 28 May 1964) is an English comedian, presenter, screenwriter, and author. He is known for his work alongside Rob Newman in ''The Mary Whitehouse Experience'' and his comedy partnership with Frank Skinner. He has als ...

, who penned the original ''Three Lions'', described this version as "brilliantly naff". On 13 June 2016 Mandy Boylett launched a follow up Brexit song, penning new words to Pink's ''

Get the Party Started "Get the Party Started" is a song by American singer Pink (singer), Pink, released on October 16, 2001, as the lead single from her second album, ''Missundaztood'' (2001). It received positive reviews and became an international success and reac ...

''. The new song was immediately reported across the British Press including the

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet ...

City AM ''City A.M.'' is a free business-focused newspaper distributed in and around London, England, with an accompanying website. Its certified distribution was 85,738 copies a day in February 2020, according to statistics compiled by the ABC, and has ...

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 The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...

, Gibraltar was a part of the UK's EU membership and, consequently, the territory participated in the referendum. All major parties within the Gibraltar Parliament supported a "remain" vote.

Official investigations into campaigns

On 9 May 2016, Leave.EU was fined £50,000 by the UK

Information Commissioner's Office The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is a non-departmental public body which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). It is the independe ...

'for failing to follow the rules about sending marketing messages': they sent people text messages without having first gained their permission to do so. On 4 March 2017, the Information Commissioner's Office also reported that it was 'conducting a wide assessment of the data-protection risks arising from the use of data analytics, including for political purposes' in relation to the Brexit campaign. It was specified that among the organisations to be investigated was

Cambridge Analytica Cambridge Analytica Ltd (CA), previously known as SCL Group, SCL USA, was a British political consulting firm that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. It was started in 2013, as a subsidiary of the privat ...

and its relationship with the Leave.EU campaign. The findings were expected to be published sometime in 2017.Carole Cadwalladr,
The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked
, ''The Observer'' (Sunday 7 May 2017). On 21 April 2017, the

announced that it was investigating 'whether one or more donations – including of services – accepted by Leave.EU was impermissible; and whether Leave.EU's spending return was complete', because 'there were reasonable grounds to suspect that potential offences under the law may have occurred'.Electoral Commission statement on investigation into Leave.EU
(21 April 2017).

References

{{United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016, state=expanded Campaigning