College-educated city dwellers, accustomed to living among immigrants and working in businesses that benefit from their skilled labor, rejected right-wing fearmongering and generally supported Remain. Lower-income Britons and those who lived in rural areas or old industrial heartlands were much more likely to support Leave. National sovereignty has always been a core part of British identity, and the Leave campaign argued that EU membership was undermining that sovereignty. Remain supporters countered by pointing to economic, trade, and national security benefits in the status quo.
