Who paid for Brexit?

People and Power investigates the curious questions about the referendum. Was the original vote to leave the EU tainted?

In June 2016, in a national referendum, the people of Britain opted by a small majority to leave the European Union. It was clear right away that it was to be a controversial decision of truly historical significance (to the United Kingdom, if not to everyone else), but few could have foreseen how it would go on to become one of the most divisive, long drawn out and consensus-shattering episodes in the country's recent history.

Two years on, with the deadline for Brexit just a few months away, bitter political arguments are still raging about the exact terms of Britain's departure, whether those terms should be subject to a second referendum or the whole project should be abandoned altogether. Today, as a result, the country appears to be assailed with doubt and uneasy about the future, its international reputation for competence and stability under threat, many of its people infuriated with a tortuous negotiation process that has seen the current UK government as still unable to devise a deal that will be acceptable to all of its own supporters, let alone its opponents or the country at large.