Brexit: The Battle for Britain

Two different sources suggesting to me that Sunderland,

which we expect to be for Leave, might be very,

very clearly for Leave, but it would be very important because Sunderland

would be an indication of how strong the Leave vote might be

in other parts of the country.

Let's go straight to Sunderland.

Total number of votes cast in favour of Remain was...

..51,930.

There were a whole group of us watching the screen,

and the Sunderland result came up.

The total number of votes cast in favour of Leave was...

82,000...

CHEERING

And it led to what I will always call the Sunderland roar.

And suddenly we all thought,

"Wow! This is unbelievable."

CHEERING

Well, the whole room just erupted.

I was still actually physically shaking myself, you know,

just with sheer excitement and surprise.

More news about the pound, Kamal.

Well, David, it's absolutely taken a hammering

since that Sunderland result, which seems to suggest

that Leave might be doing a lot better tonight.

It's down 6%.

A lot of pollsters had done polling saying that they thought we'd won,

hedge funds had done models suggesting we'd won,

so the sensation was really like walking across a path

that appeared to be safety,

and then dropping into quicksand, and realising there was nothing

and nobody that was actually going to pull you out of it.

The British people have spoken, and the answer is, "We're out."

The British people have made a very clear decision

to take a different path.

And, as such,

I think the country requires fresh leadership

to take it in this direction.

I love this country, and I feel honoured to have served it.

Thank you very much.

He finished the speech and he walked back inside and there was a lot of,

you know, emotion at that moment, a lot of tears in people's eyes.

And he then went with Sam inside his office and closed the door.

The early hours of June 24th changed everything around here

in ways that we will feel for decades to come.

But beyond the frantic frenzy of these summer weeks,

the referendum result has thrown up question marks about our politics,

our economy, the like of which haven't been posed for generations.

So how did it happen,

and why did so few people in the establishment

think that it actually might?

The story of the referendum starts back in 2013.

David Cameron is part of a coalition government

with an election planned for two years later.

The next Conservative manifesto in 2015

will ask for a mandate from the British people

for a Conservative government to negotiate a new settlement

with our European partners in the next Parliament.

And when we have negotiated that new settlement,

we will give the British people a referendum.

It will be an in-out referendum.

I was not consulted.

I was only a member of the Cabinet.

I read about it in the newspaper.

Er...

He either heard that I was very angry,

or I might have asked to go and see him,

I can't remember, but we had a row about it.

But it was a done deal.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-APPLAUSE

I think it was the most reckless and irresponsible decision

to announce that he was going to hold a referendum

in a few years' time.

But there were reasons behind the historic promise.

A big one was called Nigel,

whose so-called people's army was recruiting in droves.

We now have over 30,000 members, and we're rising fast,

and by the time of the next general election,

we will have the third highest membership

of any party in this country.

You had the rise of Ukip,

scores of Conservative MPs were rebelling on any issue

to do with Europe,

the Labour Party was flirting with holding a referendum,

and more than half of the country when asked about it

said that they also wanted to have a referendum

on whether or not we stayed in the EU.

So it became a huge boulder that was right in the middle of the road

of politics and government

that you either choose to work around or actually deal with.

But it was a question, was it not, of political management?

It was not something that the public was clamouring for.

You could either deal with it now,

or the reality is it would pop up again

in a few months or a few years.

But the idea that we weren't going to have a referendum on Europe,

I think is naive.

Promises aren't always kept in politics.

It was never certain the referendum would happen,

but David Cameron even surprised himself

by winning the 2015 election.

Are you glad to have won at last?

Now he had to keep his word.

I remember we had a conversation

a few months before the last general election.

I think we both idly mused what the outcome of the election might be,

whether another coalition needed to be formed.

And I said to him,

"Look, I just can't get my head around

"this European gamble you've taken.

"Are you sure you know what you wish for?"

And I remember at the time

David Cameron sort of very breezily saying,

"Oh, of course it'll be won, of course it'll be won."

I said, "Well, I'm really not so sure."

While the Prime Minister enjoyed what felt like a surprise win...

..those set on beating him in a much bigger contest

were getting down to work...

..watching from across the river, planning and plotting to win.

When we walked into this room, it was concrete floor,

there was builders' rubble around, the ceiling wasn't up,

so it was literally an empty shell,

and we built it from scratch.

Alongside Matthew Elliott, Dominic Cummings.

A spiky and cerebral former adviser

to the Cabinet minister Michael Gove.

Their conversations, the early moments of the campaign

that became Vote Leave.

I remember thinking, "Right, what should the slogan be?"

I think initially we thought of "Vote Leave, Get Change."

But then Dom was sitting there, and based on all his experience,

he thought, right, "Vote Leave, Take Control."

"Take control" was a perfect way of describing

the concepts of sovereignty and accountability

which all perhaps seem a bit airy-fairy to people,

but a concrete way of saying it is "take back control."

At the same time, in an office in the City of London,

Will Straw was assembling a cross-party pro-EU campaign.

And just like Vote Leave, they needed a name.

Well, we did a lot of polling around what we thought the big issues

were going to be in the election, and some of the resonant phrases.

And of those phrases,

the idea of British strength

was the most resonant with the public.

And of course, it was important to signal what this was all about,

so the longer name was Britain Stronger In Europe,

but Stronger In was the sort of shorthand that we used,

so a very inclusive phrase

that people can could say, you know, "I'm in."

No-one knew when the vote would be,

and first, David Cameron had a plan

to get a new deal with the rest of the EU.

It meant that the team was often flying off around Europe

and visiting countries.

The Prime Minister visited countries

that no British Prime Minister has visited in a century.

There were months of angst, and hope of big changes,

especially on immigration.

The Prime Minister wanted to cut the number

of EU workers coming to the UK.

Hi, good afternoon.

Well, we've got some important work to do today and tomorrow,

and it's going to be hard.

REPORTERS CLAMOUR

After a final draining few days in Brussels,

the Prime Minister did gain some ground.

For example, tighter rules on EU workers claiming benefits.

But no limit on numbers.

His EU counterparts wouldn't budge.

It's no wonder that a club of 27,

dealing with huge issues of their own -

the migration crisis, the economic problems in the eurozone -

were not in a mood to sort of provide a sweetheart deal

to a leader of a Conservative Party who, from their point of view,

appeared simply to be demanding things

to satisfy the editor of the Daily Mail and his backbenchers,

rather than doing so in the interests of Europe as a whole.

Isn't the problem with the renegotiation,

what you got was very meaningful

to people who know a lot about the European Union.

There were not measures that most voters

would be able to look at a piece of paper and go,

"Oh, wow, the EU's going to be completely different. Sign me up!"?

I'm not sure I accept your point.

Immigration, and not having those pull factors,

not giving people £1,000 a month in terms of benefits

in order to come to this country

is obviously going to have a huge difference to people.

If you're saying to me that the European Union is a very complex,

complicated thing that requires a lot of information to explain it,

and is subtle and nuanced and difficult, yes, it is.

Good afternoon.

Three years ago, I committed to the British people

that I would renegotiate our position in the European Union,

and hold an in-out referendum.

Now, I am delivering on that commitment.

You will decide, and whatever your decision,

I will do my best to deliver it.

Don't be in any doubt -

this is one of the biggest political moments for years.

He's putting at stake our membership of the European Union,

the unity of his party and, indeed, his own political future.

CHEERING

Within minutes, the Leave campaign revealed their big names -

five of David Cameron's own cabinet.

At their head, the Justice Secretary, Michael Gove...

..a long-time friend of the Prime Minister,

and well-known Euro-sceptic.

And Gove had also revealed himself to be a fan

of the TV series Game of Thrones.

Yes, an endless saga of bloodthirsty power struggles and betrayals.

Makes you wonder if he knew what was coming.

My favourite character in Game of Thrones

is undoubtedly Tyrion Lannister.

And the moment I love most

is when he leads what's apparently a hopeless charge of his troops

in defence of King's Landing against the forces of Stannis Baratheon,

and you see there that this misshapen dwarf,

reviled throughout his life,

thought in the eyes of some to be a toxic figure,

can at last rally a small band of loyal followers.

When Michael Gove announced that he was joining Vote Leave,

was the Prime Minister surprised?

Was he hurt by that?

I don't think he's ever been surprised

that Michael Gove's a Euro-sceptic.

He's made a number of speeches over the years

making very clear his opinion.

I think what he was surprised by

was that he thought that Michael had given him the impression

that he would not play a very significant role in Vote Leave,

and when it was announced that he was in fact the chairman

of Vote Leave, that was a moment of surprise.

Gove was a big name for the Leave campaign,

but both sides were desperate for the resident

of this smart London address to join their gang.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I thought I'd better come out and say something,

because I could see that you were all in a great mass here.

In terms of Boris Johnson,

is it true that he only texted the Prime Minister

a couple of minutes before he made his announcement outside his house?

I'm not sure if it was a couple of minutes,

but I know that the Prime Minister felt that he was only finally clear

within the last quarter of an hour before it happening.

I've decided, after a huge amount of heartache,

because I did not want to do anything - the last thing I wanted

was to go against David Cameron or the Government -

but after a great deal of heartache,

I don't think there's anything else I can do.

I will be advocating Vote Leave,

because I want a better deal for the people of this country.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Anyone would think he likes the attention.

Love him or loathe him, you can't ignore him.

Boris Johnson has just taken a huge political jump

that could change this campaign.

Do I think it changed the result? I'm not sure.

I had a colleague the other day who said to me,

Boris Johnson must have been worth 2-3% on that vote,

but I think what it certainly did is give credibility,

cos there was a leader.

Boris was critical.

That was a killer blow for Remain.

Killer blow.

Real problem.

I think we could have...

We could have just about coped with Michael Gove,

but to have Boris join Leave was devastating.

Stop and think about it, you know -

without Boris and without Michael Gove, who would they have had?

When Boris announced on that Sunday

that he was joining the Leave campaign, I jumped for joy.

I jumped for joy,

because it was pretty clear there was a specific audience out there

that Boris appealed to, just as there's an audience I appeal to,

and, you know...

You cannot win a referendum from one particular position

on the political spectrum.

Johnson and Gove gave Leave its political star and Tory brainpower.

Or was it a bumbling action hero...

..and some intellectual credibility?

But they were building backing from parts of the press

with astonishing stories up their sleeve -

The Sun claiming the Queen backed Brexit,

quoting an alleged conversation with Nick Clegg in 2012.

Michael Gove was suspected of being the source.

As I've said before,

I don't know how The Sun got all its information,

and I don't think it's really worth my adding anything

to what's already been said about this story.

What actually happened?

It just didn't happen. So Michael Gove obviously communicated...

Well, in fact, I KNOW he did communicate this to The Sun...

-You know he leaked it?

-Yes, I know, I know.

So he did that, and I can see why he might think

that's an interesting thing to do,

to try and drag the Queen into it, but it didn't happen.

I mean, the idea that the Queen, of all people,

would even bother to give, you know, someone as insignificant

as a here-today-gone-tomorrow Deputy Prime Minister

a tongue-lashing about Europe, I just think is so preposterous.

So it was not true,

it was a very mendacious thing to say, and it doesn't surprise me

that Buckingham Palace took this very unusual step

of actually complaining about the decision themselves.

I think it was very, very, very disrespectful of Michael Gove

to have done that.

Michael Gove has consistently said he did not give The Sun the story.

Meanwhile, the Stronger In campaign was also up and running...

..with politicians from different parties

jostling alongside each other,

a coalition with unions, and business, too,

unlike Leave's tight-knit band.

It's David Cameron calling.

I'm calling from the Stronger In campaign.

But as the campaign got underway,

David Cameron began to call the shots.

We had created the campaign vehicle,

but were, in effect, waiting for the Prime Minister

to jump into the driving seat and take us off.

What became clear was that he didn't want any back-seat drivers,

he didn't want anyone sort of grabbing the steering wheel, and...

..I think many of us didn't realise that would actually mean

we would be left at the roadside as he drove off in the campaign,

but that's effectively what happened.

APPLAUSE

Good morning, everyone.

And as the big arguments began,

Remain was counting on a traditional truth.

It's about guaranteeing our economic security here in the United Kingdom.

Brits normally vote for their economic interests,

so it was Remain's relentless focus.

This could cost families £4,300.

£4,300.

£4,300.

And that means that Britain would be poorer by £4,300 per household.

That is £4,300 worse off every year,

a bill paid year after year by the working people of Britain.

Did you feel comfortable

with what David Cameron and George Osborne were doing?

Well, I felt, in retrospect,

that there was perhaps a spurious specificity to some of the claims

that we were making.

That's a very polite way of saying

that they were exaggerating the hell out of it.

Well, I'll use my own words,

but I think there were perhaps one or two moments

where things went a bit far, so, you know,

you mentioned the 4,300 number, which was very specific.

It certainly did get headlines,

whereas perhaps a more nuanced approach wouldn't have done.

We'll never know.

In the end, I suspect we may have lost the public on that,

when a more explanatory approach would have been better.

Every week, we send £350,000,000 to Brussels.

Money that's wasted.

Vote Leave were playing their own numbers game.

Disputed, and endlessly repeated.

You know very well that you used it

in a way that can only really be described as quite misleading.

You know very well lots of that money doesn't go to Brussels

in the first place,

you know very well lots of that money comes back from Brussels,

yet you used it as your headline campaign figure.

I think we were always clear when it came to the actual campaign

about these issues if you started talking about them,

so we were always clear that...

"If you started talking about them."

It wasn't very clear from the side of your bus or your posters.

You had that figure out there

precisely because you wanted people to talk about it.

I think actually it was our opponents who were wrong in this,

in saying that we were sort of lying about this figure, or what have you.

The 350 million figure is correct, so we stand by it.

Isn't it really the case, actually,

it suited you very well to use a figure that was then debated,

disputed and created lots of controversy?

Cos it meant people were then talking about

how much money we spend in the EU.

We were very pleased that people talked

about how much we spend in the EU,

cos of course it's a major part of the debate.

Wasn't that cynical, though?

I don't think so.

Look at what was on the side of the bus.

Look at what they said.

Look at what they're claiming,

and look at how those claims disappeared in a puff of smoke

two or three days after the campaign.

Why did they disappear in a puff of smoke? Because they're not true.

When the fight really got going,

most of the polling numbers put Remain in front.

And in April, a roll call of big names

came calling to hammer home their message.

First up, the American president,

with a warning about doing business after Brexit.

I think it's fair to say that...

maybe some point down the line,

there might be a...

UK-US trade agreement, but it's not going to happen any time soon,

because our focus is on negotiating with a big bloc, the European Union,

to get a trade agreement done.

And the UK is going to be...

..in the back of the queue.

We knew from our activists talking to people on the doorstep,

and also from our focus groups and what have you,

that people really hated that moment,

because how dare the President of the US say that to Britain,

when we've been the first in the queue, the first in line,

when it's come to military action in Iraq and Afghanistan

and what have you.

We've got, you know, a special relationship with the US,

so how dare the President of the US

come over here and insult us like that,

and intervene in our referendum like that?

So that... That backfired.

But Remain did not shift.

The warnings kept coming.

The head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, was next to join in.

A vote to depart the EU would be costly in the long run,

even after this uncertainty has been resolved.

And in the short term,

there is also a risk of an adverse market reaction to a Leave vote,

the implications of which could be particularly severe.

And then the Governor of the Bank of England.

The recent behaviour of the foreign exchange market

suggests that were the UK to vote to leave the EU,

sterling's exchange rate would fall further,

perhaps sharply.

The Remain camping was banking on a tried and tested political rule -

that for more than 100 years,

the British public has normally voted with its wallet.

As things began, that strategy seemed to be working well.

But inside the Remain team, as the weeks wore on, doubts crept in.

There was concern that the British public

somehow hadn't read the script, or worse, didn't want to listen.

The Labour Party was backing Remain, but around the country,

voters who'd been behind the party for decades

just weren't on board, and time and again,

MPs were warned off on the doorstep.

It's just sort of like the elites talking to elites, saying,

"It's in your best interests to do this,"

and people weren't listening to that, and people didn't know...

"What's the IMF? What's that got to do with my life?"

You know, "What's the OECD? What's that got to do with me?"

You know, "They're bound to say that, aren't they?"

And it wasn't something that was real for them in their communities.

The referendum campaign was exposing the gap

between the Westminster-focused political class and Britain beyond.

Like in Sunderland,

where Eddie, Barry, Jimmy and Hilton were watching.

I don't think them in Westminster

know where we are up here in the North,

because they get as far as Watford,

and from Watford down, as far as they're concerned,

I'm sure we didn't exist.

When did they come to see us?

When does any of the big politicians

come into South Shields or into Sunderland?

Maybe Newcastle.

They forget that the working class people

is throughout the whole country, man.

It's working class in general that they're not working for, Jim,

not just the working class up here.

It's not just us that feel like this.

In the north-west, on the Mersey, on the Wirral,

they've got exactly the same feelings about Westminster

as we have - that Westminster is for London.

You see these politicians now, they come straight out of university,

they haven't had a job, they haven't worked on a shop floor,

they haven't worked on the building sites, anything like that.

They step into, like...

helping a politician,

and that's their career for the rest of their lives,

and then eventually they get picked to stand as MP somewhere.

What knowledge have they got of the working class

and everything like that?

People were told time and again of the risks.

There were even direct messages from big employers

in this part of the world, like Nissan and Hitachi.

But they just were not getting through.

I met people on the street who did depend on trade with Europe,

and you would explain it to them,

and they just said, "No, we'll be all right."

It was... They became the experts.

With the financial crisis in '07/'08,

the effect that that had

was to actually undermine the standing of the banks

and big multinational companies and what have you,

so whereas prior to the financial crisis,

people would often look up to business leaders

who ran those organisations,

afterwards, I think most voters looked to them and felt,

"Well, you're just really in it for yourselves.

"When you say it's good for the British economy,

"are you saying it's good for the British economy and good for me,

"or really just good for your company?"

We've had everything thrown at us - all the threats from, you know,

big international banks,

the political leadership of all parties down here.

And I was really proud of the fact that, you know,

the good people of East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire

looked at all this and thought, "No, we're not having that.

We're going to go with our hearts and with our guts."

APPLAUSE

I think the people in this country have had enough of experts with...

-They've had enough of experts?

-..from acronyms, saying...

The people of this country have had enough of experts?! What do you mean by that?

..from organisations with acronyms saying they know what is best,

and getting it consistently wrong, because unelected,

unaccountable elites...

I'm afraid it's time to say, "You're fired."

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

With tried and tested messages failing to get through,

the Remain camp wanted bold direction

from one man -

the Labour leader.

On the 23rd, there is a crucial choice that people have to make.

Labour had decided to run its own campaign, Labour In For Britain.

The idea was, it would work closely with the Stronger In group.

But it was very much harder

to work with Jeremy Corbyn.

It took me six months to get a meeting with one of his advisors.

Six months?

Six months to get a meeting.

So, the Labour leadership was not working with you, despite being...

No, they didn't want to work with us,

despite the fact that I'd been a candidate for the Labour Party

at the 2015 election.

What does that tell you, or what did you conclude

about Jeremy Corbyn's attitude, then,

to the whole question of being in the EU?

He was lukewarm about it.

Vote to Remain in order to defend investment, defend jobs,

defend workers' rights.

There was a moment caught on camera,

I think at the launch of the Labour In bus,

where he was reading notes off a piece of paper

rather than something that he just felt comfortable...

You know, as most senior politicians would in that situation,

just sort of saying what they felt about Europe.

I'm looking forward to this campaign,

and I believe it will be successful, and I believe that, er...

a Labour Government participating in Europe from 2020 onwards

will protect us against...

It was very difficult to know

what Jeremy Corbyn's motives were.

I mean, did he just sort of get out of bed the wrong side every day,

and not feel in a very, sort of, friendly, happy mood,

and want to help us, or was there something deeper?

Did he simply not want to find himself on the same side

as, you know...the Prime Minister and the Government?

Erm...

Or perhaps he just, deep down,

actually doesn't think we SHOULD remain in the European Union.

Who knows?

APPLAUSE

I think that all leading members of the Labour Party

were out actively campaigning,

and Jeremy played his part in that collective effort

by doing a lot of media appearances,

by doing a lot of meetings up and down the country.

He played his part, and we all played our part

in campaigning for that.

I think that we are now

going through a fractious time in the Labour Party, clearly,

but I don't think that it's appropriate

for people to try to blame one individual.

Vote Leave took any and every opportunity to pounce.

CHEERING

The minute you left the M25 ring,

there was a real groundswell of people who wanted to leave,

which was something the London-centric metropolitan elite

simply had not recognised.

People were coming up and it was like revealing an unpleasant secret.

-SHE WHISPERS:

-"I'm voting Leave,"

and even worse,

"I'm a Labour Party member and I'm voting Leave."

And it was that unravelling of the Labour heartlands not feeling

that the Labour Party was representing them,

I think was a real problem.

Why was your bus red?

Why was everything red?

We wanted to show that, actually,

the Labour Party's divided,

and actually having red

was another signal that we weren't a Tory campaign.

We're a cross-party campaign

including senior politicians from the Labour side of the spectrum.

So if people had seen your battle bus driving into their town,

looked at it, seen that it was red and thought,

"Oh, that's probably something to do with the Labour Party,"

-that was what you were trying to achieve.

-Precisely.

Vote Leave deliberately set out to hoover up support in Labour areas

and appealing to those who hadn't cast a ballot for years,

presenting themselves as the champions of the everyday man

-against the Establishment.

-Good afternoon, everybody.

It is a stitch-up. It is a stitch-up.

Indeed, it is the biggest stitch-up since the Bayeux Tapestry.

I must say, it's slightly ridiculous that a Leave campaign

fronted by a combination of Tory toffs

and people with well-heeled backgrounds lecturing everyone else

about the Establishment and how the elite are riding roughshod over

the interests of the country.

Why did they get away with it?

Partly because of the sheer nerve,

the sheer chutzpah that they employed in doing so.

In the Remain camp, there was pressure to try to take them out.

All the time, we were being held back because the Prime Minister

just simply didn't want - and I completely understand why -

to deepen the chasm that had broken out in his own party.

He thought that at the end of the day, after he'd won the referendum,

he would have to bring everyone together

and he didn't want to sort of poison the atmosphere any more.

So I said to George Osborne,

"We feel like sometimes we're taking a spoon to a knife fight!"

Despite divisions and doubts aplenty inside Remain,

most expectations were that they were ahead.

Then this...

Tonight at ten, net migration to the UK

rises to the second-highest level on record.

The difference between those coming to live here

and those leaving reached more than 330,000 last year,

roughly half of them from other EU countries.

That figure was more than three times the Government's target.

David Cameron had promised to slash immigration

to the tens of thousands.

Now, Leave offered the country a points-based system

where all immigrants would be judged on what they can offer,

not where they're from.

What we're saying is have a system whereby the UK Government has

to take responsibility and agree the numbers.

There was a decisive moment in this campaign.

It was the morning that Michael Gove and Boris Johnson said,

"We now want an Australian-style points system

"and limited immigration controls

"for who can come into this country,"

and that was a song that I'd been singing since 2004, on my own,

nobody else in British politics was daring to talk about such things

and suddenly two leading figures in politics

had decided to go on that issue.

That's when I thought, "We can do this,"

and that was the day the polls started to change.

Could I have a show of hands for Out, please?

The number one priority is immigration.

We're overrun by people.

It's about time England took England back.

You know, they don't call us Great Britain for nothing, do they?

I'm with Boris.

-You're with Boris?

-Yes, we're with Boris.

For years, concerns about immigration had been underplayed

in polite political circles.

Ukip had been the outsiders.

But the referendum changed all of that.

I think main reason is this immigration

and the immigrants that's coming in.

I mean, nobody likes to mention that.

The vote up here was carried on the big immigration issue.

We want to stop immigration in general in the country.

I think that's a big feeling.

We couldn't stop it while we were in the EU,

so that's why we wanted to get out of it so we can say,

"Fair enough if you want to come here

"for you to put something into it -

"doctors, nurses or whatever, like what Australia does."

You're not accepted into the country unless it's something they need

and you don't get any benefits, but here,

it just seems you can walk in and go,

"All right, I'm going to come in,"

and you can claim everything that's on the go."

So if we remained in Europe,

if we get more and more countries that don't actually contribute anything

but labour, manual labour - Romanians, Bulgarians, Poles,

Slavic countries - who'll work for less than a British lad.

But only manual labour. They're not bringing in anything skilled.

I think it's more the fear of them than the actual at this moment.

When it comes to an issue like immigration

and people feel threatened by it,

if they're looking for identity,

ultimately what it comes down to,

a lot of people can just find identity in the colour of their skin

so what therefore happens is that immigration becomes a big issue,

even though in this area, it isn't an issue.

98.5% white British in Sedgfield.

For people telling everybody about the benefits of the single market

and all the rest of it and how all this unlimited immigration has

been really good for the country economically,

well, they're not competing for their jobs,

they're not living on a council estate in the north of England

going after a zero hours contract job, or even if it's not zero hours,

still one that's very low paid.

The Leave campaign had no hesitation in ramping up the rhetoric.

The evidence is that the British Government and the European Union

are actively working towards Turkey joining the European Union

and Turkish citizens being able to travel throughout the EU.

You're scaring people to vote to leave the EU

because I tell you this, you're telling lies.

Turkey is not set to join the EU. Turkey is not set to join the EU.

I should have a say in what happens with my country.

We don't want the Syrians, we don't want the IS in here.

Go back to London with all your yuppie friends.

Where are these refugees going to go?

Where are they going to go?

The Remain camp was worried.

The contest was turning into a question of immigration and identity versus prosperity.

You could talk until the cows came home about

the fact that for every pound a migrant might get in terms of money,

they pay £10 out in taxes.

But there was this feeling there was no control over the country

and no control over our future

when people could kind of just come and go in large numbers from the European Union.

And I'd be saying, "EU referendum - in or out?"

And they'd go, "I'm out, I'm out.

"Get these immigrants out."

And people were shouting, "Get these immigrants out!"

And I think that was late May, early June, and that's when I thought,

"Oh, my goodness me, this is really, seriously, dangerously bad."

One night in early June in Downing Street,

David Cameron felt the agenda was slipping away.

The Prime Minister had watched the Ten O'Clock News

and he had felt that

the programme had been full of Leave lies

that hadn't been properly rebutted, so people were saying,

"There's going to be an EU army and Britain's going to be a member,

"that Turkey's going to join the EU and millions of people are going to come to this country,"

and all of those things, we felt,

they're simply not true as a straightforward matter of fact

and that the Prime Minister wanted to say, "You are being misled."

This campaign is based upon lies and it needs to be called out.

David Cameron called an emergency press conference the very next day.

A Leave campaign resorting to total untruths to con people

into taking a leap in the dark. It is irresponsible,

it is wrong and it's time that the Leave campaign was called out

on the nonsense that they are peddling.

Isn't it rather extraordinary that you've called a press conference this morning

to say that some of your senior colleagues are basically lying to the public?

You sound like you're pleading with voters this morning

to listen to you, not some of your own Cabinet colleagues.

Are you worried you're losing?

Not at all. What I'm worried about, what I'm concerned about

is that people are being told things that aren't correct

and I don't know of any better mechanism than to call a press conference

and simply make those points.

He was worried and eager, if not quite desperate,

to get back onto the economics.

The mistake we made was that we did fear on the economy -

keep talking about the economy, which was right,

but not all the way over it because people got bored

and tired with that. It was like we kind of made and won that argument,

so then the vacuum appeared and - bang!

In they came with their killer card, which was immigration,

and we refused to engage in it.

That's the point...

Forgive me, that's the point,

that Stronger In/Remain refused to engage on immigration.

That was a terrible, terrible mistake.

Would suddenly making a speech about immigration in the final days of

the campaign essentially change your message,

have been a sensible strategy or looked like panic

or looked like you were changing what you'd said all along?

Part of a campaign is deciding on your message and sticking to it.

But with it slipping, the decks were cleared for a strong

and direct Labour version of the message.

MUSIC: Lap dance by N.E.R.D

Showtime! Let's go.

I'm not a, erm, huge fan of the European Union.

What I believe is this is a practical decision that we take

in order to try to get better conditions across

the whole continent for everybody.

On a scale of one to ten,

where one is, "Couldn't really care less about the EU,"

and ten is, "I'm jumping on the couch like Tom Cruise on Oprah",

how passionate are you about staying in the EU?

Oh, I'd put myself in the upper half of the five to ten so we're looking

-at seven, seven and a half.

-Ooh!

-Maybe seven.

Oh, we were greatly damaged by Jeremy Corbyn's stance,

no doubt at all about that.

I mean, not only was he most of the time absent from the battle,

but he was holding back the efforts of Alan Johnson

and the Labour In Campaign.

I mean, they felt undermined.

At times, they felt actually their efforts were being sabotaged by

Jeremy Corbyn and the people around him.

The thing about Jeremy is that he is authentic.

He's an honest guy,

and in giving the EU seven or seven and a half out of ten,

he was speaking on behalf of an awful lot of people.

I've met very few people who would give the EU 100%,

and I think that that authenticity,

that real voice was an important one.

With just two weeks to go, Jeremy Corbyn did increase the visibility,

the intensity of the Labour campaign.

There was some good moments in the campaign.

I thought that the day that all of the Shadow Cabinet came together

was a really good image and was a good message as well, but by then,

with just a couple of weeks to go,

there were far too many people who didn't know Labour's position on

the referendum and I think that was because of a

lack of concerted campaigning by the leadership

over many months leading up to that point.

So, their leader let you down, really?

I felt, er...let down, yes.

-RADIO:

-It's eight o'clock on Wednesday the 15th of June.

The headlines - the Chancellor says if Britain left the EU,

there would have to be an emergency Budget with tax rises

and spending cuts.

The job of the Chancellor is to restore stability to

the public finances if we quit the EU

and that would mean there would have to be an emergency Budget.

And the moment where I really thought

things were going pear-shaped was when I woke up and I heard this,

to my mind, ludicrous announcement from George Osborne

to sort of threaten the country with a punishment Budget

if they had the temerity to disagree with him.

Now, you can do it by raising taxes, you can do it by cutting spending.

Almost certainly, you'd have to do both.

I intuitively knew as a campaigning politician,

having spoken to thousands of my own constituents,

that simply brandishing ever more threatening statistics

at a browbeaten public was going to lose the emotional case

and, at the end of the day,

most elections most of the time are won by the heart,

not the head and I got in touch with David Cameron on that day and said,

"Look, this is not going to go right.

"You're conceding the emotional argument to the Brexit camp."

Did they reply to you when you raised that concern with them?

-Yeah, yeah.

-What did they say?

He... As he's perfectly entitled, he said, "Yes, well, thanks,

"but I think we're going to carry on with our

"central refrain of don't risk it."

Nick Clegg was not the only one to flag concern.

Several Cabinet ministers told me they thought the campaign was too negative,

and at a wider meeting of Remain cabinet ministers,

others aired their doubts.

One of my colleagues had said that

they were very worried that it was all Project Fear

and there should be more positivity, and that was dismissed

and I said, on two occasions,

"I'm really worried about the Labour vote."

And it was, "Yeah, whatever." It wasn't taken seriously.

"THE GREAT ESCAPE" THEME MUSIC PLAYS

With only a week to go, Nigel Farage

was unashamedly making more warnings on immigration.

I thought that Nigel Farage's poster was disgusting.

We have a responsibility as politicians not to play the race card

and Nigel Farage is irresponsible and was attempting to divide people up even more

and trying to get the debate about Europe to be just about immigration

and about fear, and it should not have been about that.

I think that poster was unforgivable.

Are you proud of standing in front of a poster

that featured a picture of thousands of refugees

that had "breaking point" written on it?

Why did you show it on the BBC news last year?

Why did every national newspaper put it on their front pages?

The EU has failed us all is what that poster said

and I do think that what Mrs Merkel did last year

frankly was catastrophic for the European Union.

Many people on your side of the argument felt that that poster just went too far,

felt that it either was racist or bordered on racism,

and at the very least,

it was an extremely provocative way to use images of refugees

to tie that to the issue of European immigration,

of people who've come to make their lives in the UK.

Well, you say refugees. Do you mean economic migrants as well?

It's quite important that we have this debate.

There are people out there who since 2004,

when I first started talking about the immigration issue,

have tried to shout me down, have tried to close me down,

have tried to say,

"This is outside the bounds of reasonable discourse,"

but ultimately this referendum was won by people saying,

"We have got to get back control of our borders and a saner,

"better immigration system into Britain."

On the same day, the campaign clock was suddenly stopped.

A terrible act of violence that no-one could've foreseen.

Just before one o'clock today,

Jo Cox, MP for Batley and Spenborough,

was attacked in Market Street, Birstall.

It was just a devastating afternoon.

We got the news,

and then as the afternoon went on,

it became clear that she wasn't going to survive.

I'm now very sad to have to report that she has died

as a result of her injuries.

We made a very quick decision to suspend the campaign,

and it just put everything into perspective, as well.

Made you realise how trivial everything in politics can seem

when a moment like that, um, that happens.

Thank you very much!

When campaigning resumed, there were only four days to go.

Winston Churchill decided in May 1940 to fight on against Hitler,

he didn't quit on Europe, he didn't quit on European democracy,

he didn't quit on European freedom.

We want to fight for those things today.

They say we have no choice but to bow down to Brussels.

We say they are woefully underestimating this country

and what it can do.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

You're being asked to make a decision that's irreversible,

we can't change it, if we wake up on Friday, we don't like it,

we're being sold it on a lie, because they lied about the cost of Europe,

they lied about Turkey's entrance to Europe, and it's not good enough.

You deserve the truth.

You deserve the truth!

Jobs here are dependent on us being in Europe.

Have we got the message?

It's not over yet.

We've got 24 hours to sort this thing out.

Right until the end, most pundits expected the status quo would win.

But the Out campaign had the energy, and the enthusiasm on their side.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Winning was in their grasp, getting new voters out,

their not-so-secret weapon.

There was a huge motivation of people who wouldn't normally vote

to get out there and vote.

I was having people coming up to me

who had never voted before,

asking how you actually vote,

what is a ballot, what do you do?

As the polls closed on referendum night,

the bookies still favoured Remain.

I got 11th hour nerves, and I thought at ten o'clock,

"Oh, you know, they registered two million voters."

I didn't know, I mean, I was prepared for anything.

I had felt the day before the referendum that we probably were

going to do it and then on the day itself,

I thought we probably weren't going to do it!

I know people in Number Ten

and different polling agencies and what have you

and you have lots of banter on text

about what's going on and teasing and that sort of thing.

So certainly I know the feeling that night in Number Ten

was that they'd won and they'd won big.

And then of course during the night,

as the results started coming through,

and I started replying to some of these texts,

there was sort of radio silence there, shall we say?

The results were coming in above what we required for 50-50,

and it was kind of the map of the north-east and the north-west

which made me think,

"We know London's going to go a different way,

"but it won't be enough to counterbalance this."

We knew we would then need some big scores in places like London

and Scotland, and of course those came as well,

so it wasn't until results like Sheffield and Birmingham came in a

little bit later in the night, places that we thought we might win,

when they went against us, I knew we were in real trouble.

Well, at 4:40 we can now say the decision taken in 1975 by this country

to join the Common Market has been reversed by this referendum to leave the EU.

Nigel Farage arriving at the headquarters of his part of the Leave campaign.

Dare to dream!

The dawn is breaking on an independent United Kingdom.

CHEERING

Let June the 23rd go down in our history as our Independence Day!

I did feel emotional about it.

I felt this was an extraordinary, historic moment and I thought about,

you know, all the ups and downs over maybe 25 years

of taking on this battle, and I thought,

"It's all been worth it." And I still do.

Didn't think it was going to be Out.

It was just sort of a protest vote,

that they'll see it as a lot of people unhappy,

things will have to change, and I think the shock was how big it was a vote.

I think it was our way of turning round and telling our MP,

all them MPs, "Hey, listen to us and listen to what we're saying."

Now that we've had our vote and we've done this,

no matter our feelings hurt,

they've got to start coming and listening to us, man.

I think they got a big shock.

They did, exactly. Now we'll see what will happen,

whether there's going to be major change

or will it just go with the flow with the lying,

cheating politicians, and forget about the working class.

When you vote yes or no, every vote counts.

Cos it's one vote.

That's my opinion. So, I think it's...

A yes or no vote is much easier and much more democratic.

The image of Sam Adamson celebrating in Sunderland captured the night.

For her, the message was totally clear.

I definitely feel about the working class people got their voice heard

in the fact that it shook our then Prime Minister, David Cameron,

it shook the Labour Party

and everybody else who just believed that it was...

we were never going to leave,

we were always going to remain in the EU.

And I think for the working class people it was like,

"Yeah, now you've heard us, now do something about it."

In Westminster, it felt like everything was changing,

and no-one was in charge.

The Prime Minister resigned, and then the hero of the Out campaign,

Boris Johnson, gave up his chance of moving into Number Ten.

That is the agenda for the next Prime Minister of this country.

But I must tell you, my friends, that person cannot be me.

And so did Michael Gove.

-REPORTER:

-Why have you lost, Mr Gove?

Why have you come third?

Good afternoon, lovely to see you all, thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Can I get into the meeting, please?

And a huge Labour rebellion against Jeremy Corbyn

plunged it into a new leadership race.

Thank you so much. Really nice of you.

Just 21 days after the vote,

a new Prime Minister was installed with no election.

In her first speech, Theresa May tried to address many voters

who'd chosen Out who feel left behind.

If you're from an ordinary working class family,

life is much harder than many people in Westminster realise.

I know you're working around the clock,

I know you're doing your best, and I know that sometimes, life can be a struggle.

The government I lead will be driven not by the interests of

the privileged few, but by yours.

We will do everything we can to give you more control over your lives.

Carrying on just as before at Westminster doesn't seem an option.

The referendum exposed the differences among us.

Three million people who hadn't voted in a number of elections

going back voted this time

and the vast majority of them voted to leave.

Pollsters, people who understand politics,

say these people won't vote,

they won't be part of it,

but they were and they had a huge say in the final result.

Given how alienated and left behind these people feel already,

if we don't come up with some answers to

the challenge that they have laid down for us,

what kind of country will we become?

I'm a democrat, the result was clear,

but we mustn't shirk from the uncomfortable truth

that this was a democratic decision

taken in which older voters basically overwhelmed

the stated preferences of what young people in this country want.

The sniffy and patronising way in which

the liberal middle-class elite in London has just looked at the votes

of people in my patch and said,

"These people are either too stupid too Northern, too working-class,

"too poor, too old, and they didn't really know what they were voting for,"

I think it's just deeply offensive.

It requires politicians with a bit of historic perspective and

understanding of the dynamics on how we got to this point,

and quite frankly, right now,

I don't really see many of them around.

The result wasn't solely about Europe,

it was about ways in which the world had changed,

the people who'd been left behind,

and a ferocious dislike of the Establishment,

and the political class in particular.

The referendum was not just a political soap opera

full of anxiety and ambition.

Our choice will change our place in the world,

our politics and our economics.

In a way, it was an orderly revolution.

It certainly was two fingers up to this place from voters around the country,

some of whom felt they had just been ignored, and for too long.

But it was more than that -

it was a coup by a small band of dedicated campaigners

who were willing to take advantage of a Prime Minister

fresh from a victory, who thought he could win again,

a Labour Party in disarray, and who together outfoxed

and outfought the political establishment.

I've never known a story like it, and this is just the start.