Self-employed will base EU vote on personal choice, says study

Over 70 per cent of self-employed people will be basing their EU vote on personal choice rather than what is best for their business, according to a study from Intuit QuickBooks.

The study looked at how self-employed people plan to vote in today’s EU referendum and found that just 20 per cent will base their vote on what will be best for their business rather than their personal or political views.

Concerned

Out of the study of 1,000 UK self-employed workers, 41.9 per cent plan to vote “remain”, 41.3 per cent said that they will be voting “leave”, and 11.4 per cent are undecided.

Despite the number of remain and leave voters being even, 62 per cent said that they are concerned about how the results of the EU referendum will affect their future self-employment prospects. However, 57 per cent said that it is still better to be self-employed rather than working for a full-time employer due to economic uncertainty.

Over 80 per cent said that they would remain self-employed if a Brexit occurred, whilst 18 per cent said that they would find work with an employer.

Impact

According to Intuit QuickBooks Europe VP and Managing Director Rich Preece, there are now 5 million self-employed people across the UK, making it the fastest-growing category of worker.

He stated that the opinions and votes of those who are self-employed will have “a significant impact” on the outcome of the referendum, whether they have based their vote on personal choice or business reasons.

“Whatever the outcome, we must make sure this important group has the information and tools they need to succeed,” he said.