U-turn among voters in first city to ‘Leave’
THE city that signalled the end of Britain’s membership of the EU has changed its mind about Brexit, according to a survey.
A year ago Sunderland was the first to announce its result from the referendum and it sent shock waves across the country.
In total, 82,394 people voted Leave while only 51,930 backed Remain – a split of 61.3% to 38.7%.
But the Sunderland Echo newspaper has now canvassed the views of 3,100 users of its website over a 24-hour period.
The results showed 63% backing Remain, against 37% voting Leave.
DIVIDED
Although Sunderland was not Leave’s biggest win, it was the first indication of how the night was going.
But local residents were still divided on the issue yesterday.
Paul Summerside said: “People voted largely based on closing borders and halting immigration.
“And that we’d receive a massive multi-billion pot of money by leaving the Euro parliament. Now it’s been said this will not happen, people have changed their minds.”
Nathan Carr believes a lot of people voted Out because of strong feelings about immigration. “I think a lot of that was misinformed,” he reflected.
But Rob Coulson added: “Everyone I speak to feels it has dragged on too long and wants out.”
And Liz Hall said: “I would still vote leave as would my whole family.”