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Poll Reveals Brexit Supporters Older, Less Informed and More Right-Wing

© Flickr / Alex MatraversOlder couple, for illustration purposes only
Older couple, for illustration purposes only - Sputnik International
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As the dust settles on the UK's EU Referendum vote, talk has turned to the breakdown of votes, and what exactly it all means. A new poll by Lord Ashcroft reveals what lay behind the decision Brits made at the ballot box.

One of the major factors — arguably the biggest — behind the Brexit vote was age.

Younger voters were overwhelmingly more pro-EU than older voters — just 27% of 18 to 24-year-olds backed a Leave vote, in stark contrast to 60% of over 65s. This was mirrored in other polling, such as that by YouGov, which showed an even greater gulf between young and old voters.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, members of UKIP (96%) and the Conservatives (58%) were most likely to vote Leave, although all the major parties had at least 25% Euroskeptics in their ranks.

The parties which emerged as most pro-European were the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats. Of the major UK parties however, the Scottish National Party was most likely to back Remain (at 64%), although Labour voters made up the highest proportion of Remain voters UK-wide (39%).

Amongst English voters, the Ashcroft polling suggested a stark correlation between English nationalism and support for Brexit, with those who considered themselves "English not British" being twice as likely to back a Leave vote than those who considered themselves "more British than English." In Scotland however, that trend was reversed slightly, with 55% of Remain voters considering themselves "more Scottish than British."

In what is maybe the strongest indication yet that the Brexit vote was an overwhelmingly right-wing one, the Ashcroft poll compared voter preference with attitudes on issues like multiculturalism, social liberalism, feminism and the green movement. What the polling found, was that those who considered progressive issues to be a "force for ill" were massively more inclined towards a Leave vote.

Political engagement seemed to be a factor in the result too — although the poll is open somewhat to interpretation — of those who claimed to pay "a great deal of attention" to politics, the vote was split 50/50, but those who said they paid "no, to a little attention" were much more likely to vote Leave (58%).

The UK voted to leave the European Union in a nationwide referendum last week by 51.9% — 17,410,742 votes.

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