Behindtheheadlines 24 DAYS THAT SHOOK POLITICS
JUNE 23
After a bitter referendum campaign that saw both sides accusing the other of appealing almost endlessly to fear, Britain went to the polls.
It was a vote Mr Cameron described as more important than a general election because it was a decision for “a generation” and “potentially for life”.
JUNE 24
Britain wakes up to the news that the Brexiteers have defied the odds and the predictions of pollsters to win the referendum by 52% to 48%.
The UK’s 43-year membership of the EU is to end in divorce and within hours Remain’s most important advocate – the Prime Minister – announces he’s going, because he simply does not believe in the country’s chosen path.
The result reverberated around global markets, with $2.08 trillion wiped off share values.
JUNE 25
Britain’s most senior EU official, Jonathan Hill, resigns. Lord Hill, who was sent to Brussels by Mr Cameron and took the highly- prized portfolio of financial services, said he didn’t believe it was right for him to carry on in the post. Meanwhile EU Governments begin piling pressure on the UK to leave the bloc quickly.
JUNE 26
Writing in the Telegraph, one of Brexit’s biggest hitters Boris Johnson insists Britain will always be part of Europe. But he says the vote means Britain can now “extricate itself from the EU’s extraordinary and opaque system of legislation: the vast and growing corpus of law enacted by a European Court of Justice from which there can be no appeal”.
JUNE 27
The markets remain volatile in the wake of the vote, with sterling plunging to a 31-year low against the dollar, and some share trading temporarily halted.
Yields on 10-year government bonds sank below 1% for the first time, as investors bet on an interest rate cut.
Shares in airlines, housebuilders and banks were worst hit, with sharp falls causing a mo- mentary halt in trading.
JUNE 28
UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage addresses the European Parliament, telling MEPs they were “in denial” about the eurozone and migration.
He was jeered as he addressed the parliament during an emergency debate on the UK’s vote to leave the EU.
JUNE 29
EU leaders warn that the UK must honour the principle of free movement of people if it wants to retain access to the single market after it leaves the bloc.
European Council President Donald Tusk says the UK cannot pick and choose. The EU insists the freedom of movement of its citizens was non-negotiable.
Meanwhile the FTSE 100 surges through the level it closed at before the referendum, recovering all of the ground it had lost in the wake of the Brexit vote.
JUNE 30
Incidents of racism in the wake of the EU referendum result increase dramatically, according to figures.
Complaints filed to the police online hate-crime reporting site