‘The British people have spoken’

The chapter analyses vox pops for the topics that interviewees mention as influencing their intention to vote Leave and for the identities they construct vis-à-vis the interviewers. Decisive factors for voting Leave are regaining British sovereignty, including control over immigration and payments and a dislike of the EU. These motivations are linguistically realised through a collective other (the EU), which is evaluated as immoral, making leaving it seem beneficial. The interviewees also align themselves with a seemingly helpless and disempowered national collective. Findings not only echo the discourse of the Leave campaign, but also populist discourses in other European contexts.