The Qualitative Election Study of Britain: The EU Referendum 2016 Interviews Dataset comprises 15 transcripts of telephone interviews with Qualitative Election Study of Britain panellists from across England (6), Scotland (5) and Wales (4) conducted after the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum (EU Referendum) of 23rd June 2016. Telephone interviews took place in the time period between 1st July and 5th August 2016. Participants were recruited via email sign up from the existing panel of Qualitative Election Study of Britain participants (from previous QESB waves from General Elections in 2010 and 2015 and the Scottish Independence Referendum 2014). The transcriptions of these 15 interviews alongside the readme document containing information about copyright and attribution, transcription and reporting conventions constitute the The EU Referendum 2016 Interviews Dataset. Participants were asked a series of seven questions, about their feelings before the referendum, their understandings and ratings of both the Vote Leave and Stronger IN campaigns, how they voted/or not and why, their feelings upon learning the result, their thoughts and reactions to Brexit, and whether they felt optimistic, pessimistic or uncertain about the UK’s future outside of Europe?Forming part of the Qualitative Election Study of Britain (QESB), ‘The EU Referendum 2016 Interviews’ project was conducted following the UK’s referendum on membership of the European Union. The study sought to understand how the campaign and results of the UK’s referendum on membership of the European Union, held in June 2016, affected how people thought about and understood UK politics. 15 interviews were held in the two months immediately following the referendum with ‘Leave’ (3) and ‘Remain’ (12) voters in England, Scotland and Wales recruited from the panel of participants who had taken part in previous rounds of the QESB. The transcriptions of these interviews constitute the ‘The Qualitative Election Study of Britain: The EU Referendum 2016 Interviews Dataset’. This data sits alongside the QESB 2010 study (available under SN 6861), the QESB 2015 study (SN 8117), the QESB Leader Evaluations Database 2010-2019 (SN 856002) and the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum Study (forthcoming). The data are freely available to the general public via the QESB website and the UK Data Archive.

Telephone Interviews