Majority of UK Citizens Voted to Leave EU Due to Dissatisfaction With Migration

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Brexit might have been triggered by the dissatisfaction with growing migration flow in the United Kingdom as the 76 percent of the respondents, who voted in favor of country’s withdrawal from the European Union, are more concerned by the issue rather by the UK general political line, a poll revealed on Wednesday.

"Concerns about the social consequences of EU membership were key in influencing how people voted in the EU referendum … 73% of those who are worried about immigration voted Leave, compared with 36% of those who did not identify this as a concern," the UK independent NatCen Social Research organization said in a press release on the survey results.

The poll also revealed that the majority of the surveyed, 72 percent, who voted in favor of Brexit, said they share authoritirian views, while only 21 percent stated that they share libertarian views.

According to the poll, the dissatisfaction with the UK government was not a main reason behind the decision to vote for Brexit.

"45% of those who trust government a great deal or tend to trust it voted to leave, compared with 65% of those who distrust it greatly … The EU referendum can therefore be characterised as a litmus test of the merits of the EU project, and perhaps of globalisation more generally, rather than as a lightning rod for wider political discontent," the organization said.

On June 23 2016, the United Kingdom held a referendum to determine whether or not the country should leave the European Union. According to the final results, 51.9 percent of voters, or 17.4 million people, supported Brexit.

According to the figures of the Migration Watch UK think tank, the total net migration to the United Kingdom in 2015 amounted to 248,000 people.