page_title: Referendums by country
section_title: United Kingdom
hierarchical_section_title: Referendums by country / Europe / United Kingdom
caption_attribution_description: Scottish Parliament frontal view
context_page_description: A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal.
context_section_description: Although Acts of Parliament may permit referendums to take place, the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty means any Act of Parliament giving effect to a referendum result could be reversed by a subsequent Act of Parliament. As a result, referendums in the United Kingdom cannot be constitutionally binding, although they will usually have a persuasive political effect.
  Major referendums are rare; only three have been put to the entire UK electorate. The first was the 1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum, which was held two years after British accession to the European Economic Community to gauge support for continued membership. The second was the 2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum. This was to vote on changing the 'First Past the Post' system to an alternative electoral system, the Alternative Vote.
  Referendums have been held in individual parts of the United Kingdom on issues relating to devolution in Scotland and Wales, an elected Mayor of London and a Greater London Authority for Greater London, a regional assembly for the North-East of England and the constitutional status and governance of Northern Ireland. Since 1973, the year of the first such plebiscite, there have been nine major referendums.
  In 2004, Her Majesty's Government promised a UK-wide referendum on the new European Constitution, but this was postponed in 2005 following the defeats of the French and Dutch referendums. Due to the replacement of the European Constitution with the Treaty of Lisbon, there was no obligation for a referendum. Referendums have also been proposed, but not held, on the replacement of the pound sterling with the euro as the currency of the United Kingdom.
  A national referendum was held in Scotland on the 18th of September 2014. Voters were asked to answer Yes or No to the question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?" to which 55% of Scots voted "No".
  At the local level, the Government has put proposals for directly-elected mayors to 37 local authority areas by referendum. The 1972 Local Government Act also contains a little-used provision that allows non-binding local referendums on any issue to be called by small groups of voters. Strathclyde Regional Council held a postal referendum in 1994 on whether control of water and sewerage services should be transferred to appointed boards: this was largely a political tactic, since this was the policy of the UK Government at the time. The UK Parliament enacted the legislation anyway, and it came into force on 1 April 1996.
  On Thursday 23 June 2016 a third UK-wide referendum was held on the issue of the United Kingdom's continuing membership of the European Union 41 years after the first referendum. The referendum was called by the Prime Minister David Cameron and Her Majesty's Government after an agreement was struck in Brussels with the European Union which renegotiated the membership of the United Kingdom. This referendum resulted in a majority voting to leave the EU by 52% of votes as opposed to 48% of votes who voted to remain, causing unprecedented ramifications both within the UK, Europe and internationally, and forced the resignation of David Cameron the following day (he officially left office on July 13).
caption: The Scottish Parliament was created through the 1997 Scottish devolution referendum.
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