Brexit Campaign Hits Road Bumps Less Than Two Days Before Voting Day
Polls suggest Britain's push to leave the EU is losing steam in its final days.
LONDON -- In the last 48 hours before British voters decide if the United Kingdom will leave the European Union, the “Brexit” campaign seems divided while new polls predict that it is losing ground.
The “remain” camp has seen a big boost in support in recent days and leads with 53 percent among definite voters, compared to the "leave" camp's 46 percent, according to the latest ORB poll, conducted for the Telegraph. It is the final ORB poll before voting day on Thursday.
Social research body NatCen also published a survey that found that 53 percent supported "remain" while 47 percent supported "leave," but its research was conducted from mid-May to mid-June.
The two new polls follow a series of polls released Saturday night that showed increased support for staying in the E.U. following the killing of Member of Parliament Jo Cox, who supported remaining in the E.U.
Former soccer player David Beckham also said today that he supports staying in the E.U.
"We live in a vibrant and connected world where together as a people we are strong. For our children and their children we should be facing the problems of the world together and not alone. For these reasons I am voting to Remain," Beckham said in a Facebook statement.
In the meantime, the Brexit side's leading campaigners, Michael Gove and Boris Johnson from the Conservative Party, have been throwing verbal jabs at Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing party UKIP, who also supports leaving the E.U.
Gove said he "shuddered" when he saw a UKIP anti-E.U. poster showing a long queue of migrants and the words “breaking point.”
"When I saw that poster, I shuddered. I thought it was the wrong thing to do," Gove told the BBC.
Johnson today told London-based radio LBC that he ”didn’t like” the poster. “It seemed to be saying that these were bad people coming to our country and I felt profoundly unhappy with it,” Johnson said.
Farage told the BBC that the poster was simply telling the truth and that "the point of that poster was to say that Europe isn't working."