Why We Voted to Leave: Britain Speaks Panorama

Ten days ago, we all felt the political ground shift beneath our

feet. Most MPs wanted to remain, most voters didn't. That's more than

17 million people whose views were dismissed as plain idiotic by many

Remainers. I think it is a disaster. Believers everywhere say they had

never been heard before so tonight Panorama really listens to those who

dared to disagree with their political leaders. We will hear of

their hopes for the future... Perhaps now we are independent

again, probably industry will start to come back. Just stopped everybody

from coming in now, this is our country now, enough is enough. And

ask why they chose Leave. I just want my country back, that is all, I

want Englishness. Finally they might start listening to the British

people. And today you join us on five live

daily at West Bromwich bus station right in the heart of England...

I have come back to my home patch the week after the vote. I was born

and raised here in the West Midlands where the majority, in some areas of

really big majority, voted Leave. I now live in London, which was firmly

for Remain. The general view is that in areas like this it was the pick

and educated that have voted for Brexit. But I grew up around here,

it doesn't sound right to me. -- the thick. First stop on my journey,

Tipton, where jobs are seriously thin on the ground. What is this

estate called? Tibbington estate. Do you like it here? Yes, we all look

after each other. John Butler loves living in this close community. I

had a house there in number 42 and the house you saw today, I live

there. John and his partner have six kids and rent their three-bedroom

house, he wants a council house but cannot get one. He has been a

soldier and a steelworker and now he is neither. He is out of work on

benefits and he says the job centre is no help. They will say here is

?200 a week job and obviously I have refused it, what good is that to me?

When I have paid my rent and council tax, my money has gone. John says

Polish families get housing ahead of him and that his ?14 an hour job in

the steel industry came to an end when immigrants started doing the

work for less than half that. I have done for years to get to that, I was

a grinder, a flat in, I used forklifts, overhead cranes, then he

let me go onto the provo cutting and learned how to use them. Then you

got them coming in straightaway on doing that job, taking that job away

from me. So all of a sudden you had an influx of Polish workers who took

your job? Yes, Polish, Romanians and they take the job. We want jobs back

in this country now, enough is enough. John has penned an awful lot

of his hopes on the Leave wrote. There is no future for my kids. If

the gates were closed, do you think their future would be brighter? Yes,

all that my they have been spending could go on apprenticeships. I want

my kids to go to University and have a proper education. We want to see

changes, more jobs, more helpful or people, not rich. Do you think

voting Leave will help that? I hope so, I think it will but not

straightaway. It is going to take time. There is a sale on in West

Bromwich market. Did you vote Leave or Remain? Out. The fabric buying

community are definitely split along the lines of West Bromwich itself,

about 65/35 for Leave, I reckon. This area has a large and generally

long established immigrant population. This burger van owner

was born in Wolverhampton. His grandparents came from India in the

1950s. The family I was born into was a modern British family, we used

to speak to our parents in English. We ate English food, my mum would

make shepherd spies. She wasn't so much into that she -- the

traditional cooking. We had a Ford Cortina, we would go out to Dudley

zoo. He says there's a difference between the new wave of immigrants

and the one that brought his family here. My grandparents came over to

England from the Commonwealth to help better themselves but also to

build a country, and people who are now coming from the EU, I don't see

that as the same. Our resources are getting smaller and they are

basically adding pressure on to that. Like John down the road in

Tipton, Koolee lays the blame for low wages and scarce jobs squarely

at the door of EU migrants. There has been times when I have been

working with an agency or working on a contract, the contract has ended

and they haven't renewed it because they don't want to pay what they

have been paying me. It has come to a point where I haven't got enough

money to pay my rent. And when he was facing homelessness and no

council housing was available, he felt there were many migrants ahead

of him in the queue. The migrants have more priority than I did. I was

standing in the queue and they said, sorry, there is nothing we can do

for you. These guys who have just come in from another country, by all

means help them, but I was waiting for someone somewhere to do

something and I never had nothing. Every Leave voter I speak to raises

levels of immigration very early in the conversation but there's another

very important factor, democracy. Many Leavers feel as if they had a

meaningful vote for the first time. I was born in Quinton, where

Birmingham meets the black Country. This is home to Katie Oliver, who

moved to the area from Wiltshire. She has had a run of seriously bad

luck. She is grieving for her son who was stillborn in January. She

had an accident whilst working in a care home and is now on disability

benefits. It is a chronic pain condition where it affects your

muscles, your joints and bones, causes chronic fatigue. And her flat

has just flooded. She has been cheered by the Leave wrote, for the

first time she feels engaged in politics. My vote counted. I never

felt that anything I ever said would have counted. I never thought

anybody would listen and I am really proud of that finally we have been

listened to. And I'm like, well now it is time that we all come together

and sort this out. It is interesting that you really care about having

democratic control of the EU, but you have had democratic control all

your life in this country but yet you haven't voted in general

elections. You are passionate about democracy and being able to exercise

your vote, yet you haven't voted in a general election. That is

definitely changing. Katie resents the suggestion that her Leave vote

means she is racist in some way. It is annoying me that we have this

very small number of people that are racist and they are making people

like me look awful because it has got nothing to do with race. I mean

the immigration is what makes the world go round, it is not a bad

thing, it is a good thing. To me, that's how the world should work. So

what's the issue? I feel this country is falling apart. I don't

feel like the Government are putting enough back into the community, into

our councils. The housing situation. I feel like we are helping everybody

else yet we are forgetting here. So there is too much of it basically,

we cannot cope with what we have got now? Exactly. Deal with what is here

first. You cannot... You are adding more and more to the pot and it is

overflowing. It is the same as cooking, you cannot keep adding

ingredients and expecting the pot to stay the same, it will overflow

eventually. While the Leavers explain their thinking to me, some

of the Remainer is around here are in despair. I have invited a handful

of them to a favourite of mine in Hockley, near the centre of

Birmingham. Personally, as a young person I think a lot of

opportunities have been taken away from us. You could tell that young

people wanted to stay in the European Union, 70% of us voted to

Remain. I think that it was the vote that was based on naivete. I think

the public like the rhetoric used in the Leave campaign a lot more than

what was coming from the Remain campaign. I sincerely think it is a

massive protest vote, I think it is a huge protest vote. Those

communities that have suffered industrialisation and have been

hollowed out to use that term won't find a solution to their problems

through Brexit a sickly. It will be a weakened economy, the country will

be split up. Go on, Sophie, your biggest fear? Worst-case scenario. A

lack of opportunities that are going to be present if we do leave. Well,

we are leaving, I have got to tell you! The lack of opportunities for

the younger population as we are getting into jobs, leaving

university, trying to progress. It is going to become very limited for

us. Research tells us the better off you are, the more likely you would

have been to vote Remain, but you don't have to look very far to find

exceptions to that rule. We certainly don't want to be carrying

excess stock into the summer in the school holidays... One of them is

Peter Shirley, owner of Midland food group in Willenhall. He set up in

1976 and it has grown and grown. He has 230 workers and business is

good. He has seen and reaped the benefits of the single market. But

he thinks everything will be just fine when we are out and he will

definitely not miss the red tape. The European Union, what has got on

your nerves about it from a practical business point of view? I

think it was the unrealistic regulation that came through that

ended up being ignored. A prime example here, we received a

directive saying that we have got to assess the amount of packaging that

would be used in a year. An estimate of it? Yes, and if you could guess

that you are magician. It is annoying but why don't you make up

some numbers, send it back, what's the problem? I think that's what

people did but it makes it irrelevant. What's the point of

having information that's totally useless? That was the impracticality

of the European Union showed to a tea. It's like close-up magic to me

how it all comes together. Never mind the bureaucratic

irritants, a more important factor in his Leave vote was what he sees

as flaws in the whole in his Leave vote was what he sees

as flaws in the whole project. I felt it was in the interests of my

country that we got out of the European Union. It was a Common

Market - it is now a political union. I am a graduate of Cambridge

University, I studied history. One thing you find when you study

history is political empires of the European Union type do not last. Far

too many different countries in it. This is where the mix is cooked...

And before long, as in all these conversations, we turned to concerns

about the level of immigration. Often, it is classified as racism,

it's not, though, it is when somebody can't get a child into

school, or somebody can't get a doctor's appointment, and they feel

there are too many people coming in. There is nothing wrong with

immigration. We have got 20 Polish staff, they are great! They have

come over, they have got a flat, they have got a car, they are

marrying, having children, part of our society, and they are OK,

nothing wrong with them at all. It is just that our services have not

been built up to cope with that. It is no use allowing 330,000 people in

a year without building more schools, more roads. Getting life

adjusted to the number of people who are coming in.

There is a lot being said about many Leave voters regretting where they

put their cross. But I'm not finding much evidence of that, least of all

from Peter. I think we should take this opportunity now to stand back

and look at the sort of society we've got. We should be one nation

and work together, but I happen you feel bad that one nation is Great

Britain, I don't feel it's part of the European Union. -- I don't

happen to feel that that one nation is Great Britain. If anyone has

their finger on the pulse of a community, it is a decent pub

landlord. And that this pub in Tividale near Dudley, Ryan Morris is

that man. When you walk down the road, and you and is aching from

waving to people because everybody knows your name and your story, that

is a good thing. I like being a local celebrity, yeah.

Anything else I can get you? He says the referendum was all anybody

talked about for months, and as ever immigration levels were a big

concern. People will tell you that immigration isn't a problem, and it

is just about investment in local services, but if you can't get your

child into a school, that will have an effect on the mentality.

Ryan sees the whole thing in terms of haves and have-nots. If you live

in a league the town where you do not have the same sort of social

problems, the same sort of housing and school problems, and your house

is as big as you needed to be of life is brilliant, why would you

want the economic uncertainty? Why would you want to change? Where is

your reason? He says politicians' rhetoric just generally goes down

badly in these parts. Around here, I think it was more, you know, two

fingers up at the establishment. I think there is an arrogance within

the intellectual elite to say, we were right, even though you won, you

are in the wrong. You do not understand the severity of what you

have done. It is like turkeys voting for

Christmas. It is not - it is turkeys stopping the production line. Again,

I get the sense that the referendum has really engaged people in

politics for the first time. I think there was a growing movement,

especially in the last week, week and a half, there was a snowball

effect, and more and more people got involved. Thursday morning, my phone

was going off, what should I do, where are we voting? Just asking

general questions. The desire to, quote, get my country

back, is something I hear from many Leave voters. Jim Ferry says it with

as much passion as anyone. Originally from the north-east, he

has lived in Erdington, North Birmingham, for years. Once, being

British was an identity. I mean, I come from Erdington, and it's like

little Poland. I've got nothing against Poles, or any other Eastern

European people, but they are here purely for money, not social aspects

of life, they are breaking the community apart, politicians are out

of touch. Do want to open up? To me, it was a no-brainer, leaving the

European Union, purely and simply from a community point of view. The

sense of maybe getting the community back, stopping the influx of people

who are no more interested in England than just making a few bob.

It is all about money. This notion of regaining a lost sense of

community is really hard to pin down. Jim takes me for a coffee to

try to explain. So when you were growing up and

starting your working life, you were in a different part of the country,

you were in South Shields, but what was it about that that felt like

community? It was a sense of being part of the same thing, being part

of the same heritage, with the same ideals and the same sort of use. It

is not a case of excluding, it is trying to embrace them to accept the

fact that they are in a country you have got to know something about

before they start taking from it. They have to give something as well.

They are giving something if they are paying taxes, buying things,

contributing to the economy. They are economic contributors. If you

don't have a society, you don't have money... The fabric of what makes

us, the community is what makes us who we are.

Lots of people who share the same view as me don't get the

opportunity, how often does the common man appeared in front of a

camera? People with the same views as me, but they are scared to

because of political correctness. I am no longer as proud of being

English as I was because it doesn't been anything anymore. -- it doesn't

mean anything anymore. Older people, the figures tell us, were most

likely to vote Leave. Hazel and Barry Priest from Tipton are two of

the millions who did so. Both now retired, Barry spends his

working life in the gas industry. Hazel was a receptionist. They spend

their time making and selling clothing and bandannas for dogs.

Their favoured mode of transport is their newly acquired narrow boat. To

Barry and Hazel, this area, home all their lives, has changed beyond

recognition over the years. It used to be British Steel here, and it has

just changed tremendously in that sense, a lot of the factories have

gone. Anything that is to do with making things have just disappeared.

And it is a shame, because I think the country can actually produce. We

have got the workforce to do it, we just need... We just need the

opportunity, and I think voting out would give us that opportunity,

because we can take control of our own destiny without being influenced

by Brussels. Hours Tipton changed since you were a little girl? Oh,

tragically. I can remember, when I was a little girl, I went to this

street here, on the right-hand side of the road it was completely full

of shops. Completely. And of a Saturday it was like busy. It was a

busy, thriving little town. Nostalgic as she is, Hazel isn't one

of those people who thinks everything was better 30 years ago.

She likes her community now. But she remains troubled by the level of

immigration. My reason for voting was because of all the immigration.

They are squeezing all the natural people, born and bred in this

country, to the limits with jobs, with housing. They get jobs, OK,

fair enough, I am not criticising, but instead of keeping the money in

the country, they send it back to their own country. So how is it

going to benefit Britain by them doing that? You take that view,

perfectly reasonable, and many share it, but it hasn't personally

impinged on you. You have no problem yourself. No. I have no objection to

people coming into the country. It is the volume. The volume, yeah.

That is the problem, in my opinion. Of everyone I spoke to, Hazel had

the clearest take on why the vote went Leave's way. At the end of the

day, that river of all what's wrong, what has been. The British people by

the EU, or whatever you want to call them, these bodies, saying, you

can't do this, you can't do that, and all that river has flowed into

one big massive sea of anger. And that is why we had a Leave vote.

That is what I think. And all this... It is fascinating, what you

say, this image of the river. It has come to bursting point, really, in

that sense. It can only get better, can't it, now? Can it? Yeah. I think

so. I think so. None of the Leavers I spoke to think

it will be easy. Of course I am scared, because we don't know what

will happen, but I very much believe, if we unite, we can make

this work. I really do believe that. I really do. I think, if anything,

it's going to change the way politics are run. I think it will

probably have a totally bad it will affect on politics, and that can

only be good. The Leavers have spoken, and in these uncertain

times, only one thing is for sure - they are expecting action. You have

invested so much hope in this vote. You know, and many others have, I

just wonder how you will feel, if in three years' time... Exactly. We

will all be furious. We are all going to be angry. I would say my

time was wasted to go down to the polling station to vote, it is

ridiculous. The people we have spoken to are demanding real change.

Which begs two questions - will they get it? And if they don't, who will

they blame? Hello, I'm Riz Lateef

with your 90 second update. He says he got his country back,

now he wants his life back.