Brexit: Why is UK voting to stay or exit anyway?

It is undoubtedly the biggest day for UK as they go in to vote on whether they choose to stay or leave the European Union (EU). As polling for Brexit start in just over an hour (1230pm IST) the world will keep a close watch on the voting till it ends, as it is expected to have an impact on the entire globe.

So why is the referendum being held?

The UK Prime Minister David Cameron had renegotiated terms with the EU in early 2016 specifically on laws related to labour, immigration, rules on immigrant worker remittances, migrant welfare payments and on a whole to safe­guard the financial services industry of the UK.

However, Cameron promised, as part of his election mandate, that the citizens of UK will have their say on whether they choose to accept the new terms and stay on as part of the EU or whether they want to exit.

One of the main reason behind those in the UK choosing to the country's exit from the EU is the jobs being taken away from British citizens by migrants from smaller EU states such as Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltics. With UK's good job market being at 5% and unemployment falling to a 10­year low, many in Britain feel that this will attract more cheap migrant labour from Eastern EU nations who take away these job from UK citizens.

This is true as more than 40% of the migrants to the UK are from the new member countries that have joined the EU and have come in search of a job, according to a Quartz article.

Another major reason is UK's substantial financial contribution to EU for bailing out troubled nations such as Greece and Portugal.

These are some of the reasons why that most of the latest polls say that the number of UK citizens thinking of voting for Brexit has grown substantially. Around three months back, most polls showed that a substantial majority of the UK public would vote to remain part of the EU. 

Global investors are getting increasingly nervous about the outcome as a vote to ‘leave the EU’ is gaining traction and that could have extremely dire consequences in the near­term and possibly the medium term, according to an HDFC Bank report on the implications of Brexit.