--- title: Patrick Stewart Argues Against a Brexit description: Sir Patrick Stewart recalled his childhood during World War II and the start of the European Union while arguing against a Brexit. canonical: https://time.com/4354959/patrick-stewart-brexit/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-02T15:03:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:21:02.351Z article:section: Politics og:title: Patrick Stewart Argues Against a Brexit og:description: The actor wrote a piece about why Britain should remain in the European Union. og:url: https://time.com/4354959/patrick-stewart-brexit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c730a1bed95e921/698896033c163976b845d7e1/patrick-stewart-brexit-against.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: patrick stewart brexit against og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Patrick Stewart Argues Against a Brexit twitter:description: The actor wrote a piece about why Britain should remain in the European Union. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c730a1bed95e921/698896033c163976b845d7e1/patrick-stewart-brexit-against.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Patrick Stewart Made This Impassioned Plea for Britain to Stay in the European Union > Sponsored content. 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Jenny Anderson—WireImage  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Jun 2, 2016 3:03 PM UTC The actor Sir Patrick Stewart recalled his childhood during World War II and the start of the European Union in a piece [he wrote](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/02/i-saw-postwar-europe-unite-reject-isolationism-leave-eu) for the _Guardian_ arguing against [a Brexit](http://time.com/4232768/britain-eu-referendum-brexit-guide/). “Though I am convinced that the stay vote will win the day, nevertheless the fact that so many fellow British citizens want to leave Europe is shocking. Standing alone was how we were in 1940,” [Stewart](http://time.com/3954363/patrick-stewart-voices/) wrote. “Why campaign to put us back there?” Britain will take to the polls on June 23 to vote on whether to leave or stay in the E.U. [Stewart,](http://time.com/4004381/patrick-stewart/) best known for his role in Star Trek, wrote that Britain should stay, because he saw the country come together after World War II and develop into a stronger nation when it began cooperating with Europe. “When the European Union came into existence and the U.K. became a member, it was for me a triumph of all those convictions that the future must be one of worldwide cooperation and unity, and here we were paving the way with the beginnings of collaboration across Europe and learning the lessons of our own history.” Stewart is the latest in a long queue of British celebrities, including [Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley](http://time.com/4342844/brexit-remain-campaign-letter/), who have come out against Brexit. \[[_The Guardian_](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/02/i-saw-postwar-europe-unite-reject-isolationism-leave-eu)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4354959/patrick-stewart-brexit/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4354959/patrick-stewart-brexit/"},"headline":"Patrick Stewart Made This Impassioned Plea for Britain to Stay in the European Union","datePublished":"2016-06-02T15:03:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:21:02.351Z","description":"The actor recalled his birth in the Second World War and watching Britain prosper as it improved links with Europe","url":"https://time.com/4354959/patrick-stewart-brexit/","keywords":["politics","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c730a1bed95e921/698896033c163976b845d7e1/patrick-stewart-brexit-against.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c730a1bed95e921/698896033c163976b845d7e1/patrick-stewart-brexit-against.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"patrick stewart brexit against","caption":"AOL Build Presents: \"Blunt Talk\"","creditText":"Jenny Anderson—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4354959/patrick-stewart-brexit/","name":"Patrick Stewart Made This Impassioned Plea for Britain to Stay in the European Union"}}]}] ```