MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The in-out vote on June 23 was called by the UK government last year in an attempt to get more leverage in talks with Europe on the country's new membership terms.
"We face something that is not an everyday decision, but one which will affect our lives for decades to come… So much is at stake here," UK Prime Minister David Cameron cautioned the nation on Sunday, adding "there will be no re-run."
This comes after a murder of a Labour lawmaker and vocal pro-Stay campaigner, Jo Cox, by a man suspected of having far-right links seemingly reversed the fortunes of Brexiters who had been in the lead for weeks. The previous Survation poll showed "out" ahead of "in" by 3 percent.
On Tuesday, the EU, US and Japanese central banks agreed on a currency swap as a contingency plan to be able to exchange currencies in large quantities in case of a run on banks that an "out" vote could trigger.
The Bank of England predicted earlier that the value of the pound sterling would decrease significantly and become more dependent on the demand, supply and exchange rate effects if the country exits the EU market.
Conversely, the Leave campaign has complained of a rising net EU immigration to the United Kingdom, which currently stands at an annual 300,000. EU workers claim social benefits, driving competition in the United Kingdom up and wages down, they say.
Meanwhile, Scottish National Party (SNP) Health spokeswoman Philippa Whitford spoke to Sputnik of a hole that the United Kingdom’s NHS public healthcare service would have to plug when around 100,000 nurses and doctors require an overnight replacement in case of a Brexit.
Pro-Brexit campaigners argue that the United Kingdom is the bloc’s second largest economy and one of the net contributors to its budget. Leaving the European Union would free up $25.5 billion in contributions (as of 2015) for domestic use, they said.
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has warned, however, that the nation could end up having a $43-billion deficit in public finances. He said this "black hole" would need to be filled with increased income, gas and alcohol taxes.
The United Kingdom would also be forced to cut spending on defense, health and education by 2 percent a year, he warned, to an equivalent of $21.5 billion in total.
On trade, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in a fresh outlook report that a decision to leave would be a big hit to its external trade, around half of which is with the European Union's 500-million-consumer single market.
The Leave campaign said a new trade deal with the union would secure the current trade volumes, while absence of EU trade regulations would open the way for pacts with other nations, which would boost the gross domestic product.
A Brexit could arguably send shockwaves across Europe, many political analysts have warned. They say the United Kingdom's independence would strengthen nationalist sentiment and trigger similar referendums across Europe, most notably in Spain.
On the international arena, the argument from the Stay side of the aisle is that the United Kingdom can make big decisions as part of a united EU camp, including working together with other member states to tackle global security and terror challenges.
Contrarily, the United Kingdom relies a lot on NATO for its defense, former chief of defense staff Lord Guthrie told UK media on Friday, adding an EU initiative to create an army of its own was expensive and detrimental to NATO.
Despite this, the United Kingdom’s close military and economic partners in the United States and Germany cautioned the Brits against pulling out for the sake of its continued global influence.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated that the United Kingdom had more leverage when acting from inside the 28-nation bloc. US President Barack Obama said, in his turn, that an "out" vote would put London at the back of the queue in free trade talks.
