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The UK government was also one of the biggest proponents for the UK remaining in the EU, so it's... not exactly surprising that the Leave campaign didn't align
by makomk 8y ago
The UK government was also one of the biggest proponents for the UK remaining in the EU, so it's... not exactly surprising that the Leave campaign didn't align with the government position
- dragonwriter 8y agoYeah, it's easy forget that the referendum was designed to be a sop to euroskeptics within the majority party, because by separating out the question to its own referendum rather than the parliamentary elections, those euroskeptics would stay with the party leadership, who they agreed with on non-EU issues. Since the referendum was seen as a slam dunk for Remain when it was set, this was seen as a zero-cost way of protecting the government's parliamentary majority, with the possible side benefit of quieting the anti-EU faction down since their expected failure in the referendum would be something that could be pointed to in future discussions.