Nonsense. UKIP could have been stopped by any governing party worth its salt by showing them up as the petty xenophobic racists that they are. Their ridiculous claims about immigrants ruining the economy should have been show up for what they were - Just scapegoating to distract people away from how the country had been mismanaged. Unfortunately Cameron and Co were the party guilty of mismanagement and they compounded it by being so shit scared of an unelected pressure group that they caved in.

Nevertheless, the outcome of the referendum has made it patently clear that leaving the EU was the will of the majority of the voters*. As neither 'major party' was going to move on the matter, they were right to fear that UKIP would continue to gain in influence if nothing was done about the call for separation from the EU. As such a referendum was an option which avoided splitting either party over the issue. It was a referendum of convenience. The major parties underestimated the numbers who would support Brexit.

*voters: Those who actually vote, as opposed to 'electorate' or 'population'.