This paper focuses on the stereotyped media image of Sunderland as a key indication of the ‘Brexit’ vote in the 2016 Referendum. By contrast , local voting patterns suggests that the city was typical of Labour heartlands. It is argued that factors such as education and class may have been more important, factors that were reflected nationally as well as locally in the North East. More broadly, the crisis of English, white, identity in the former industrial heartlands is conceptually and historically explored to place Sunderland in its local context