The Brexit-Backers Who Regret Not Voting Remain After EU Referendum Results

Some of them regret it, others feel lied to.
Many 'Leave' voters have revealed they now feel guilty about not backing 'Remain' instead
Many 'Leave' voters have revealed they now feel guilty about not backing 'Remain' instead
Anthony Devlin/PA Wire

Thursday's referendum was a tightly fought debate and one that divided the nation; less than 2% separated the 'Leave' win from the 'Remain' loss.

But when the results came in, some pundits wondered how many voters regretted backing Brexit, or only did so as a protest vote and were surprised to have ended up on the winning side.

Sure enough, not long after David Cameron conceded he had lost the historic poll, reports started to filter through of Brexit voters who wished they could backtrack on their decision.

Some claimed to have been duped by alleged 'mistruths' of the campaign, others that they had voted 'Leave' but never expected the campaign to win, while one person said they had "no real reason" to vote how they did.

Here they are the Brexit-backtrackers in their own words:

1. Adam

Leave voter 'Adam' admitted on national television this morning that he didn't think his ballot would matter and was beginning to regret his decision.

In a segment during the BBC’s rolling coverage of events, Adam was introduced as a Leave voter and asked for his reaction.

He said: “I’m a bit shocked to be honest.

“I’m shocked that we voted for Leave, I didn’t think that was going to happen.

“I didn’t think my vote was going to matter too much because I thought we were just going to remain.”

Adam added: “The David Cameron resignation has blown me away to be honest and the period of uncertainty that we’re going to be magnified now so yeah, I’m quite worried.”

2. Flyer and her family

Another Brexiter said if there were "one thing" she could do it would be to "go back to the polling station and vote to stay".

Interviewed at an airport some 12 hours after an indication of the final result came through she said: "This morning the reality is actually hitting in and the regrets are filling in that we have actually left the EU.

She added that most of her family had backed the Leave campaign but were also regretting their decisision.

"[We're] very dissapointed," the woman told 5News. "The whole family this morning, even though the majority of us voted to leave, we are actually regretting it today."

3. Susan

A tearful woman also revealed she felt "a bit sick" and had a "lump in her throat" after voting for Brexit.

Susan, a caller into James O'Brien's LBC radio show, accused leading Brexit campaigners of 'conning' her with the pledge to invest the UK's £350 million weekly contribution to the EU in the NHS instead.

The woman demanded that voters be balloted in a second referendum so they could vote properly.

"I do feel a bit sick," she said. "This big lie, this £350m pounds a day that we're told was going to go into the NHS. Why haven't we - we're being conned and we need another referendum."

4. Khembe

One Twitter user, Khembe Gibbons, spoke out after she voted for Brexit yesterday.

She put her ill-feeling about the referendum down to feeling lied to and said backing 'Leave' was something "I regret more than anything".

Khembe added that she felt "genuinely robbed of my vote".

5. Tom

Another elector also revealed on social media that they regretted their vote after 'Leave' won.

Tom Walker posted: "I think I kinda regret my vote. I had no real reason to pick what I did!"

6. Matt

Matt Stephens, a 30-year-old chartered accountant, revealed on Twitter that both he and his wife both regretted voting Leave.

He claimed the pair backed Brexit so that "the establishment would take notice" - but that they now feel a "twinge of guilt".

Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, both key figures in the Leave campaign, celebrated a future Brexit today
Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, both key figures in the Leave campaign, celebrated a future Brexit today
Mary Turner/PA Wire

And those six reportedly aren't the only ones.

The BBC's Louisa Compton claimed that most voters in Manchester appearing on a Victoria Derbyshire programme debate woke up thinking "what have I done?".

The decision by Brits to leave the EU has sent shockwaves across the world.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair speculated in the aftermath that many of those balloted yesterday would have treated the referendum as a protest vote.

“Many people who voted Leave saw this as a protest vote. And it wasn’t, I’m afraid. It was a decision vote.”

- Tony Blair

But many have been vocally critical of those who said they now regretted their decision.

One social media user suggested the Brexit tagline be known as: "Vote first, regret later."

A Brexit result saw Britain fall behind France in its ranking as the fifth biggest economy in the world.

Leave won 51.9% of the total vote to Remain’s 48.1% after the final count. Turnout in the referendum was 71.8% - with more than 30 million people voting.

The dramatic result wiped £122 billion of the value of the FTSE 100 within minutes - it dropped to 5,788.74 just after opening, a dramatic fall of more than 8%.

The pound plummeted to a low not seen since 1985, before recovering slightly to a seven-year low.

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