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The poll was legally binding, they had to leave. Not that politics isn't broken ofc. EDIT I was wrong

The referendum was not legally binding.

It would have been untenable, however, for a government to defy the will of the people as expressed in the referendum.

I have no desire to re-hash this particular argument, but the margin, 48/52 was very small. Very close to 50/50. And the turnout wasn't perfect. I've heard that only something like 30% of the eligible voters voted to leave.

There was no "will of the people". The people were undecided.

Indeed, it's frustrating to see it constantly said that the "decisive will of the British people" has spoken!

And then there's the fact that Britons settled in Europe didn't have a vote.

Whatever you can say about voting rights for overseas citizens in general elections, this vote was explicitly removing rights that they are currently exercising as part of EU membership — arguably they are the most affected by the outcome, yet were disenfranchised.

> It would have been untenable, however, for a government to defy the will of the people as expressed in the referendum.

I may have missed something but at no point was anything resembling the current 'plan' ever put forward to be considered as 'the will of the people'.

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