There are only two weeks to go until the United Kingdom takes to the polls to decide whether to leave the European Union, or stay in the bloc.

After a largely slow build up, pressure really ramped up when Prime Minister David Cameron and Brexit campaigner Michael Gove took part in separate debates organised by Sky TV. The Remain camp seemed to be well on course with a slight, although still significant lead.

Now, however, things have taken a sharp turn and almost overnight, the opinion polls have swung to the leave camp, largely fronted by former London Mayor Boris Johnson. If some of the polls are to be believed, some 55 per cent of people who took part in a recent poll believe that the United Kingdom should leave the EU wile 45 believe the UK should stay. It is unclear as to what has caused this sudden and quite substantial swing, but it has worried the remain camp and a large scale information assault is due to be launched in a last ditch attempt to keep the United Kingdom in the EU.

What is becoming very abundantly clear is that the debate in the UK is very much one to do with illegal migration into the country. A lot of scaremongering has taken place, but it seems that the UK, always an EU sceptic, is pulling further and further away. There also seems to be some confusion in terms of human rights, with many Britons believing the Council of Europe – which includes all European nations – and the European Union to be the same thing. This is, of course, not the case, but it does nothing to help matters.

Many fear that if the UK leaves the EU, it would spark a slow and painful unravelling of the bloc which rose out of the ashes of WWII. What began as free trade of coal and steel between a few nations eventually grew into the European Economic Community and the enlarged European Union as we know it today.

Others believe that if the UK leaves, it could spark an emergency breakout where countries might just leave the bloc en masse. It certainly seems that Europe’s “unique experiment with democracy” is suffering somewhat of a midlife identity crisis. This was largely sparked by the fact that many people were beginning to feel disenfranchised with the EU’s state of affairs. The state of affairs was exacerbated due to the 2009 financial crisis and all the heartbreak and pain that followed. Yet the EU showed solidarity. Fast forward to 2015, and the human wave of migrants that flowed into Europe from Syria. Once again, European Union intransigence led to the fuelling of nationalistic sentiments, which led to governments acting unilaterally and largely bypassing the European Union.

It has already been made clear that Malta will be one of the countries that will be most exposed if the UK leaves the EU in terms of trade, as well as perhaps holidaymakers. There is no doubt that if the UK leaves the EU, things will be tougher for the nation. But equally, there can be no doubt that a Brexit does happen, then the EU will also be a weaker entity. The UK needs the EU and the EU needs the UK. It is time to stop the misinformation and concentrate on the truth.