on 23 june 2016, the uk made a referendum that asked whether the uk should leave the eu. the result was that 51.9% of the uk electorate (the main region of the uk) voted that the uk should leave the eu. the rest wanted the uk to stay in the eu. on 29 march 2017, the uk government said that they will definitely be leaving the eu. this started the procedure of article 50 of the treaty on european union, a law that deals with countries that leave the eu. the uk was expected to fully leave the eu on 29 march 2019 at 11p.m. utc. the deadline to leave was later changed to 31 october 2019.