Members of the 'Remain' and 'Leave' camps have clashed in the ITV Referendum Debate, with accusations of lying and scaremongering thrown back and forth ahead of the vote in two weeks time.
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, Angela Eagle and Amber Rudd appeared on behalf of Vote Remain. Former London Mayor Boris Johnson, Andrea Leadsom and Gisela Stuart represented Vote Leave.
In the EU, Britain is outvoted more than any other country, according to Boris Johnson, who believes the country will have the same influence outside the bloc.
According to fact-checking organisation Full Fact, Britain is outvoted more than any other EU country, but it still doesn’t happen very often.
Official EU voting records show that the British government has voted ‘No’ to laws passed at EU level on 56 occasions, abstained 70 times, and voted ‘Yes’ 2,466 times since 1999.
In other words, UK ministers were on the “winning side” 95% of the time, abstained 3% of the time, and were on the losing side 2%.
This is counting votes in the EU Council of Ministers, which passes most EU laws jointly with the European Parliament.
But in recent years the UK has been more often on the losing side of these votes.
Between 2009 and 2015 the UK voted against the majority 12.3% of the time, compared to 2.6% of the time between 2004 and 2009.
That made it the country most likely to be on the losing side during the later period—the closest competitors were Germany and Austria, which were on the losing side 5.4% of the time.
Campaigners for remaining in and leaving the EU have clashed in a fiery debate on ITV.
On a night of fierce debate between Remain and Leave campaigners during the ITV referendum debate, which of the claims actually stacked up?
Analysis of ITV's EU referendum debate.