:00:10. > :00:22.Ten days ago, we all felt the political ground shift beneath our
:00:23. > :00:27.feet. Most MPs wanted to remain, most voters didn't. That's more than
:00:28. > :00:35.17 million people whose views were dismissed as plain idiotic by many
:00:36. > :00:39.Remainers. I think it is a disaster. Believers everywhere say they had
:00:40. > :00:42.never been heard before so tonight Panorama really listens to those who
:00:43. > :00:50.dared to disagree with their political leaders. We will hear of
:00:51. > :00:54.their hopes for the future... Perhaps now we are independent
:00:55. > :00:59.again, probably industry will start to come back. Just stopped everybody
:01:00. > :01:06.from coming in now, this is our country now, enough is enough. And
:01:07. > :01:15.ask why they chose Leave. I just want my country back, that is all, I
:01:16. > :01:16.want Englishness. Finally they might start listening to the British
:01:17. > :01:36.people. And today you join us on five live
:01:37. > :01:40.daily at West Bromwich bus station right in the heart of England...
:01:41. > :01:46.I have come back to my home patch the week after the vote. I was born
:01:47. > :01:53.and raised here in the West Midlands where the majority, in some areas of
:01:54. > :02:01.really big majority, voted Leave. I now live in London, which was firmly
:02:02. > :02:06.for Remain. The general view is that in areas like this it was the pick
:02:07. > :02:13.and educated that have voted for Brexit. But I grew up around here,
:02:14. > :02:23.it doesn't sound right to me. -- the thick. First stop on my journey,
:02:24. > :02:38.Tipton, where jobs are seriously thin on the ground. What is this
:02:39. > :02:45.estate called? Tibbington estate. Do you like it here? Yes, we all look
:02:46. > :02:52.after each other. John Butler loves living in this close community. I
:02:53. > :02:58.had a house there in number 42 and the house you saw today, I live
:02:59. > :03:02.there. John and his partner have six kids and rent their three-bedroom
:03:03. > :03:07.house, he wants a council house but cannot get one. He has been a
:03:08. > :03:14.soldier and a steelworker and now he is neither. He is out of work on
:03:15. > :03:22.benefits and he says the job centre is no help. They will say here is
:03:23. > :03:30.?200 a week job and obviously I have refused it, what good is that to me?
:03:31. > :03:36.When I have paid my rent and council tax, my money has gone. John says
:03:37. > :03:41.Polish families get housing ahead of him and that his ?14 an hour job in
:03:42. > :03:46.the steel industry came to an end when immigrants started doing the
:03:47. > :03:52.work for less than half that. I have done for years to get to that, I was
:03:53. > :04:03.a grinder, a flat in, I used forklifts, overhead cranes, then he
:04:04. > :04:11.let me go onto the provo cutting and learned how to use them. Then you
:04:12. > :04:16.got them coming in straightaway on doing that job, taking that job away
:04:17. > :04:21.from me. So all of a sudden you had an influx of Polish workers who took
:04:22. > :04:31.your job? Yes, Polish, Romanians and they take the job. We want jobs back
:04:32. > :04:38.in this country now, enough is enough. John has penned an awful lot
:04:39. > :04:46.of his hopes on the Leave wrote. There is no future for my kids. If
:04:47. > :04:52.the gates were closed, do you think their future would be brighter? Yes,
:04:53. > :04:57.all that my they have been spending could go on apprenticeships. I want
:04:58. > :05:03.my kids to go to University and have a proper education. We want to see
:05:04. > :05:08.changes, more jobs, more helpful or people, not rich. Do you think
:05:09. > :05:13.voting Leave will help that? I hope so, I think it will but not
:05:14. > :05:22.straightaway. It is going to take time. There is a sale on in West
:05:23. > :05:32.Bromwich market. Did you vote Leave or Remain? Out. The fabric buying
:05:33. > :05:42.community are definitely split along the lines of West Bromwich itself,
:05:43. > :05:45.about 65/35 for Leave, I reckon. This area has a large and generally
:05:46. > :05:54.long established immigrant population. This burger van owner
:05:55. > :05:59.was born in Wolverhampton. His grandparents came from India in the
:06:00. > :06:04.1950s. The family I was born into was a modern British family, we used
:06:05. > :06:09.to speak to our parents in English. We ate English food, my mum would
:06:10. > :06:17.make shepherd spies. She wasn't so much into that she -- the
:06:18. > :06:21.traditional cooking. We had a Ford Cortina, we would go out to Dudley
:06:22. > :06:25.zoo. He says there's a difference between the new wave of immigrants
:06:26. > :06:31.and the one that brought his family here. My grandparents came over to
:06:32. > :06:36.England from the Commonwealth to help better themselves but also to
:06:37. > :06:42.build a country, and people who are now coming from the EU, I don't see
:06:43. > :06:45.that as the same. Our resources are getting smaller and they are
:06:46. > :06:54.basically adding pressure on to that. Like John down the road in
:06:55. > :07:05.Tipton, Koolee lays the blame for low wages and scarce jobs squarely
:07:06. > :07:10.at the door of EU migrants. There has been times when I have been
:07:11. > :07:13.working with an agency or working on a contract, the contract has ended
:07:14. > :07:17.and they haven't renewed it because they don't want to pay what they
:07:18. > :07:22.have been paying me. It has come to a point where I haven't got enough
:07:23. > :07:26.money to pay my rent. And when he was facing homelessness and no
:07:27. > :07:33.council housing was available, he felt there were many migrants ahead
:07:34. > :07:38.of him in the queue. The migrants have more priority than I did. I was
:07:39. > :07:43.standing in the queue and they said, sorry, there is nothing we can do
:07:44. > :07:49.for you. These guys who have just come in from another country, by all
:07:50. > :07:56.means help them, but I was waiting for someone somewhere to do
:07:57. > :08:01.something and I never had nothing. Every Leave voter I speak to raises
:08:02. > :08:05.levels of immigration very early in the conversation but there's another
:08:06. > :08:10.very important factor, democracy. Many Leavers feel as if they had a
:08:11. > :08:23.meaningful vote for the first time. I was born in Quinton, where
:08:24. > :08:28.Birmingham meets the black Country. This is home to Katie Oliver, who
:08:29. > :08:33.moved to the area from Wiltshire. She has had a run of seriously bad
:08:34. > :08:37.luck. She is grieving for her son who was stillborn in January. She
:08:38. > :08:43.had an accident whilst working in a care home and is now on disability
:08:44. > :08:47.benefits. It is a chronic pain condition where it affects your
:08:48. > :08:53.muscles, your joints and bones, causes chronic fatigue. And her flat
:08:54. > :08:57.has just flooded. She has been cheered by the Leave wrote, for the
:08:58. > :09:03.first time she feels engaged in politics. My vote counted. I never
:09:04. > :09:07.felt that anything I ever said would have counted. I never thought
:09:08. > :09:12.anybody would listen and I am really proud of that finally we have been
:09:13. > :09:19.listened to. And I'm like, well now it is time that we all come together
:09:20. > :09:22.and sort this out. It is interesting that you really care about having
:09:23. > :09:27.democratic control of the EU, but you have had democratic control all
:09:28. > :09:31.your life in this country but yet you haven't voted in general
:09:32. > :09:36.elections. You are passionate about democracy and being able to exercise
:09:37. > :09:44.your vote, yet you haven't voted in a general election. That is
:09:45. > :09:49.definitely changing. Katie resents the suggestion that her Leave vote
:09:50. > :09:54.means she is racist in some way. It is annoying me that we have this
:09:55. > :09:57.very small number of people that are racist and they are making people
:09:58. > :10:03.like me look awful because it has got nothing to do with race. I mean
:10:04. > :10:08.the immigration is what makes the world go round, it is not a bad
:10:09. > :10:17.thing, it is a good thing. To me, that's how the world should work. So
:10:18. > :10:21.what's the issue? I feel this country is falling apart. I don't
:10:22. > :10:25.feel like the Government are putting enough back into the community, into
:10:26. > :10:33.our councils. The housing situation. I feel like we are helping everybody
:10:34. > :10:38.else yet we are forgetting here. So there is too much of it basically,
:10:39. > :10:44.we cannot cope with what we have got now? Exactly. Deal with what is here
:10:45. > :10:50.first. You cannot... You are adding more and more to the pot and it is
:10:51. > :10:54.overflowing. It is the same as cooking, you cannot keep adding
:10:55. > :11:00.ingredients and expecting the pot to stay the same, it will overflow
:11:01. > :11:04.eventually. While the Leavers explain their thinking to me, some
:11:05. > :11:09.of the Remainer is around here are in despair. I have invited a handful
:11:10. > :11:15.of them to a favourite of mine in Hockley, near the centre of
:11:16. > :11:18.Birmingham. Personally, as a young person I think a lot of
:11:19. > :11:23.opportunities have been taken away from us. You could tell that young
:11:24. > :11:32.people wanted to stay in the European Union, 70% of us voted to
:11:33. > :11:38.Remain. I think that it was the vote that was based on naivete. I think
:11:39. > :11:41.the public like the rhetoric used in the Leave campaign a lot more than
:11:42. > :11:48.what was coming from the Remain campaign. I sincerely think it is a
:11:49. > :11:55.massive protest vote, I think it is a huge protest vote. Those
:11:56. > :11:58.communities that have suffered industrialisation and have been
:11:59. > :12:03.hollowed out to use that term won't find a solution to their problems
:12:04. > :12:11.through Brexit a sickly. It will be a weakened economy, the country will
:12:12. > :12:16.be split up. Go on, Sophie, your biggest fear? Worst-case scenario. A
:12:17. > :12:24.lack of opportunities that are going to be present if we do leave. Well,
:12:25. > :12:28.we are leaving, I have got to tell you! The lack of opportunities for
:12:29. > :12:32.the younger population as we are getting into jobs, leaving
:12:33. > :12:42.university, trying to progress. It is going to become very limited for
:12:43. > :12:46.us. Research tells us the better off you are, the more likely you would
:12:47. > :12:53.have been to vote Remain, but you don't have to look very far to find
:12:54. > :12:58.exceptions to that rule. We certainly don't want to be carrying
:12:59. > :13:05.excess stock into the summer in the school holidays... One of them is
:13:06. > :13:11.Peter Shirley, owner of Midland food group in Willenhall. He set up in
:13:12. > :13:16.1976 and it has grown and grown. He has 230 workers and business is
:13:17. > :13:21.good. He has seen and reaped the benefits of the single market. But
:13:22. > :13:29.he thinks everything will be just fine when we are out and he will
:13:30. > :13:32.definitely not miss the red tape. The European Union, what has got on
:13:33. > :13:37.your nerves about it from a practical business point of view? I
:13:38. > :13:41.think it was the unrealistic regulation that came through that
:13:42. > :13:44.ended up being ignored. A prime example here, we received a
:13:45. > :13:52.directive saying that we have got to assess the amount of packaging that
:13:53. > :13:57.would be used in a year. An estimate of it? Yes, and if you could guess
:13:58. > :14:03.that you are magician. It is annoying but why don't you make up
:14:04. > :14:06.some numbers, send it back, what's the problem? I think that's what
:14:07. > :14:10.people did but it makes it irrelevant. What's the point of
:14:11. > :14:14.having information that's totally useless? That was the impracticality
:14:15. > :14:18.of the European Union showed to a tea. It's like close-up magic to me
:14:19. > :14:28.how it all comes together. Never mind the bureaucratic
:14:29. > :14:30.irritants, a more important factor in his Leave vote was what he sees
:14:31. > :14:33.as flaws in the whole in his Leave vote was what he sees
:14:34. > :14:37.as flaws in the whole project. I felt it was in the interests of my
:14:38. > :14:41.country that we got out of the European Union. It was a Common
:14:42. > :14:48.Market - it is now a political union. I am a graduate of Cambridge
:14:49. > :14:54.University, I studied history. One thing you find when you study
:14:55. > :15:00.history is political empires of the European Union type do not last. Far
:15:01. > :15:07.too many different countries in it. This is where the mix is cooked...
:15:08. > :15:11.And before long, as in all these conversations, we turned to concerns
:15:12. > :15:15.about the level of immigration. Often, it is classified as racism,
:15:16. > :15:20.it's not, though, it is when somebody can't get a child into
:15:21. > :15:24.school, or somebody can't get a doctor's appointment, and they feel
:15:25. > :15:28.there are too many people coming in. There is nothing wrong with
:15:29. > :15:32.immigration. We have got 20 Polish staff, they are great! They have
:15:33. > :15:36.come over, they have got a flat, they have got a car, they are
:15:37. > :15:42.marrying, having children, part of our society, and they are OK,
:15:43. > :15:45.nothing wrong with them at all. It is just that our services have not
:15:46. > :15:50.been built up to cope with that. It is no use allowing 330,000 people in
:15:51. > :15:55.a year without building more schools, more roads. Getting life
:15:56. > :16:00.adjusted to the number of people who are coming in.
:16:01. > :16:04.There is a lot being said about many Leave voters regretting where they
:16:05. > :16:10.put their cross. But I'm not finding much evidence of that, least of all
:16:11. > :16:13.from Peter. I think we should take this opportunity now to stand back
:16:14. > :16:19.and look at the sort of society we've got. We should be one nation
:16:20. > :16:23.and work together, but I happen you feel bad that one nation is Great
:16:24. > :16:29.Britain, I don't feel it's part of the European Union. -- I don't
:16:30. > :16:33.happen to feel that that one nation is Great Britain. If anyone has
:16:34. > :16:38.their finger on the pulse of a community, it is a decent pub
:16:39. > :16:45.landlord. And that this pub in Tividale near Dudley, Ryan Morris is
:16:46. > :16:49.that man. When you walk down the road, and you and is aching from
:16:50. > :16:54.waving to people because everybody knows your name and your story, that
:16:55. > :16:59.is a good thing. I like being a local celebrity, yeah.
:17:00. > :17:03.Anything else I can get you? He says the referendum was all anybody
:17:04. > :17:07.talked about for months, and as ever immigration levels were a big
:17:08. > :17:13.concern. People will tell you that immigration isn't a problem, and it
:17:14. > :17:18.is just about investment in local services, but if you can't get your
:17:19. > :17:26.child into a school, that will have an effect on the mentality.
:17:27. > :17:32.Ryan sees the whole thing in terms of haves and have-nots. If you live
:17:33. > :17:36.in a league the town where you do not have the same sort of social
:17:37. > :17:40.problems, the same sort of housing and school problems, and your house
:17:41. > :17:44.is as big as you needed to be of life is brilliant, why would you
:17:45. > :17:52.want the economic uncertainty? Why would you want to change? Where is
:17:53. > :17:57.your reason? He says politicians' rhetoric just generally goes down
:17:58. > :18:03.badly in these parts. Around here, I think it was more, you know, two
:18:04. > :18:07.fingers up at the establishment. I think there is an arrogance within
:18:08. > :18:13.the intellectual elite to say, we were right, even though you won, you
:18:14. > :18:15.are in the wrong. You do not understand the severity of what you
:18:16. > :18:21.have done. It is like turkeys voting for
:18:22. > :18:28.Christmas. It is not - it is turkeys stopping the production line. Again,
:18:29. > :18:32.I get the sense that the referendum has really engaged people in
:18:33. > :18:38.politics for the first time. I think there was a growing movement,
:18:39. > :18:43.especially in the last week, week and a half, there was a snowball
:18:44. > :18:50.effect, and more and more people got involved. Thursday morning, my phone
:18:51. > :18:51.was going off, what should I do, where are we voting? Just asking
:18:52. > :19:03.general questions. The desire to, quote, get my country
:19:04. > :19:12.back, is something I hear from many Leave voters. Jim Ferry says it with
:19:13. > :19:16.as much passion as anyone. Originally from the north-east, he
:19:17. > :19:23.has lived in Erdington, North Birmingham, for years. Once, being
:19:24. > :19:27.British was an identity. I mean, I come from Erdington, and it's like
:19:28. > :19:36.little Poland. I've got nothing against Poles, or any other Eastern
:19:37. > :19:41.European people, but they are here purely for money, not social aspects
:19:42. > :19:48.of life, they are breaking the community apart, politicians are out
:19:49. > :19:52.of touch. Do want to open up? To me, it was a no-brainer, leaving the
:19:53. > :19:58.European Union, purely and simply from a community point of view. The
:19:59. > :20:02.sense of maybe getting the community back, stopping the influx of people
:20:03. > :20:10.who are no more interested in England than just making a few bob.
:20:11. > :20:15.It is all about money. This notion of regaining a lost sense of
:20:16. > :20:20.community is really hard to pin down. Jim takes me for a coffee to
:20:21. > :20:25.try to explain. So when you were growing up and
:20:26. > :20:29.starting your working life, you were in a different part of the country,
:20:30. > :20:34.you were in South Shields, but what was it about that that felt like
:20:35. > :20:37.community? It was a sense of being part of the same thing, being part
:20:38. > :20:43.of the same heritage, with the same ideals and the same sort of use. It
:20:44. > :20:49.is not a case of excluding, it is trying to embrace them to accept the
:20:50. > :20:52.fact that they are in a country you have got to know something about
:20:53. > :20:57.before they start taking from it. They have to give something as well.
:20:58. > :21:03.They are giving something if they are paying taxes, buying things,
:21:04. > :21:08.contributing to the economy. They are economic contributors. If you
:21:09. > :21:15.don't have a society, you don't have money... The fabric of what makes
:21:16. > :21:22.us, the community is what makes us who we are.
:21:23. > :21:25.Lots of people who share the same view as me don't get the
:21:26. > :21:30.opportunity, how often does the common man appeared in front of a
:21:31. > :21:34.camera? People with the same views as me, but they are scared to
:21:35. > :21:38.because of political correctness. I am no longer as proud of being
:21:39. > :21:48.English as I was because it doesn't been anything anymore. -- it doesn't
:21:49. > :21:55.mean anything anymore. Older people, the figures tell us, were most
:21:56. > :22:05.likely to vote Leave. Hazel and Barry Priest from Tipton are two of
:22:06. > :22:09.the millions who did so. Both now retired, Barry spends his
:22:10. > :22:18.working life in the gas industry. Hazel was a receptionist. They spend
:22:19. > :22:24.their time making and selling clothing and bandannas for dogs.
:22:25. > :22:32.Their favoured mode of transport is their newly acquired narrow boat. To
:22:33. > :22:38.Barry and Hazel, this area, home all their lives, has changed beyond
:22:39. > :22:48.recognition over the years. It used to be British Steel here, and it has
:22:49. > :22:52.just changed tremendously in that sense, a lot of the factories have
:22:53. > :22:58.gone. Anything that is to do with making things have just disappeared.
:22:59. > :23:03.And it is a shame, because I think the country can actually produce. We
:23:04. > :23:08.have got the workforce to do it, we just need... We just need the
:23:09. > :23:12.opportunity, and I think voting out would give us that opportunity,
:23:13. > :23:17.because we can take control of our own destiny without being influenced
:23:18. > :23:22.by Brussels. Hours Tipton changed since you were a little girl? Oh,
:23:23. > :23:27.tragically. I can remember, when I was a little girl, I went to this
:23:28. > :23:36.street here, on the right-hand side of the road it was completely full
:23:37. > :23:43.of shops. Completely. And of a Saturday it was like busy. It was a
:23:44. > :23:47.busy, thriving little town. Nostalgic as she is, Hazel isn't one
:23:48. > :23:52.of those people who thinks everything was better 30 years ago.
:23:53. > :23:58.She likes her community now. But she remains troubled by the level of
:23:59. > :24:04.immigration. My reason for voting was because of all the immigration.
:24:05. > :24:09.They are squeezing all the natural people, born and bred in this
:24:10. > :24:15.country, to the limits with jobs, with housing. They get jobs, OK,
:24:16. > :24:18.fair enough, I am not criticising, but instead of keeping the money in
:24:19. > :24:23.the country, they send it back to their own country. So how is it
:24:24. > :24:28.going to benefit Britain by them doing that? You take that view,
:24:29. > :24:32.perfectly reasonable, and many share it, but it hasn't personally
:24:33. > :24:38.impinged on you. You have no problem yourself. No. I have no objection to
:24:39. > :24:48.people coming into the country. It is the volume. The volume, yeah.
:24:49. > :24:54.That is the problem, in my opinion. Of everyone I spoke to, Hazel had
:24:55. > :25:01.the clearest take on why the vote went Leave's way. At the end of the
:25:02. > :25:08.day, that river of all what's wrong, what has been. The British people by
:25:09. > :25:12.the EU, or whatever you want to call them, these bodies, saying, you
:25:13. > :25:20.can't do this, you can't do that, and all that river has flowed into
:25:21. > :25:26.one big massive sea of anger. And that is why we had a Leave vote.
:25:27. > :25:33.That is what I think. And all this... It is fascinating, what you
:25:34. > :25:38.say, this image of the river. It has come to bursting point, really, in
:25:39. > :25:46.that sense. It can only get better, can't it, now? Can it? Yeah. I think
:25:47. > :25:53.so. I think so. None of the Leavers I spoke to think
:25:54. > :25:57.it will be easy. Of course I am scared, because we don't know what
:25:58. > :26:03.will happen, but I very much believe, if we unite, we can make
:26:04. > :26:10.this work. I really do believe that. I really do. I think, if anything,
:26:11. > :26:16.it's going to change the way politics are run. I think it will
:26:17. > :26:22.probably have a totally bad it will affect on politics, and that can
:26:23. > :26:26.only be good. The Leavers have spoken, and in these uncertain
:26:27. > :26:32.times, only one thing is for sure - they are expecting action. You have
:26:33. > :26:36.invested so much hope in this vote. You know, and many others have, I
:26:37. > :26:44.just wonder how you will feel, if in three years' time... Exactly. We
:26:45. > :26:54.will all be furious. We are all going to be angry. I would say my
:26:55. > :27:01.time was wasted to go down to the polling station to vote, it is
:27:02. > :27:08.ridiculous. The people we have spoken to are demanding real change.
:27:09. > :27:12.Which begs two questions - will they get it? And if they don't, who will
:27:13. > :27:46.they blame? Hello, I'm Riz Lateef
:27:47. > :27:49.with your 90 second update. He says he got his country back,
:27:50. > :27:53.now he wants his life back.