Good (and accurate I think) piece on UK referendums in Wikipedia. Too long for the standard link maker so C&P it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referendums_in_the_United_Kingdom#:~:text=Only%20three%20referendums%20have%20ever,and%20became%20the%20European%20Union.

Interesting item in it. I suspect it could be the only thing that Clement Attlee and Margaret Thatcher could agree on :-)

"In May 1945 the then Prime Minister Winston Churchill suggested holding a referendum over the question of extending the life of his wartime Coalition until victory was won over Japan. However, Deputy Prime Minister Clement Attlee refused, saying "I could not consent to the introduction into our national life of a device so alien to all our traditions as the referendum, which has only too often been the instrument of Nazism and Fascism." In March 1975 Margaret Thatcher also quoted Clement Attlee that referendums are "a device of dictators and demagogues" as Napoleon, Mussolini and Hitler had exploited their use in the past."