ABSTRACT
In January 2013, former British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that, if re-elected, his Conservative government would hold an in-out referendum on membership of the European Union. Strikingly, during the BBC’s rolling news coverage in the immediate aftermath of the referendum, a number of voters who had indeed decided to leave the EU came out as “Bregrexiteers”, suddenly seeming to have second thoughts. Initially, it looked as though the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn had all the odds stacked against it: the 2016 EU Referendum had already exposed the high degree of partisanship inherent to the British press. Social media facilitate greater expression, and previously unheard voices can be amplified. Through their reach, collectively, new media organisations can pressure political establishments in perhaps unprecedented ways. Many commentators saw this is a particularly cunning move by Theresa May and her Conservative government: at the time, her party held a 25% lead over the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn.
