Meet the twins who voted differently on Brexit… but now are firmly behind Remain

Sam Hollings from Swindon said that he felt ‘betrayed’ by his brother Adam when he voted to Leave the European Union.

‘I couldn’t understand how he could come to that conclusion and that was the most hurtful thing, because we’re the same people,’ he explained to Chinese news organisation CGTN.

Adam, who grew up in Yorkshire but now lives in China, explained that his distance meant he did not feel Europe was significant to him. He hoped the vote would have strengthened Chinese and British relations.

‘I don’t actually care about Europe that much. The workings of the European Union or the day-to-day running of the UK – it doesn’t bother me, because it doesn’t really affect me at all.’

He said that he had limited access to all of the information available to him living overseas.

‘I was quite strongly behind leave because I believed from what I’d read that it would be good. In the past, I didn’t really have any German or French friends, so it didn’t really matter to me if they left Europe.’

But twin Sam, who works for the NHS, said that he was shocked by his brother’s decision because they were from a family of international explorers with relatives living in Spain and Dominican Republic.

‘My girlfriend is Italian and that could jeopardize her future here. It felt like he hadn’t thought about anything – about how it could affect me, how it could harm my job, my girlfriend’s job.’

While politics appears to be off the agenda for the rest of the family, the two brothers appear to have reconciled their differences, with Adam now becoming a Remainer. He has even joined Sam on a People’s Vote march.

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‘I didn’t realize how big a thing it would be and I didn’t realise how much it mattered to Sam,’ Adam explained. ‘There is no pride in being wrong for the sake of being wrong and that’s why I changed my mind.’