Why Did the Conservatives Let Them Vote?

All the politicians wanted this not to happen. So why did they even let them do the referendum? Because they thought, well, you've like settled this one's in for all democracy. It's because the Conservatives were in a coalition with a particle, the Liberal Democrats. And I think what they did is they sort of used this as a bargaining chip. They had this in their manifesto, not expecting to have to use it effectively. But they were convinced the vote would go the way they wanted it to go and it didn't. What happened was everyone suddenly decided that if you wanted to leave the EU, you were a racist, stupid, reactionary, unreconstructed big guy. That