This referendum happened because people wanted it , labour promised it and then reneged , the tories promised it and didnt , neither side would have promised it if there wasn't an appetite for it , and the vote would have gone the other way if Cameron had come back with anything meaningful.
Neither party should have promised a referendum - that's not how decisions are made in a parliamentary democracy, and that campaign showed exactly why not. Lies and mistruths on both sides, it was a farce. What's more, nobody really knows what Brexit they were voting for. And then there is the glossed over issue where an ill-informed snap-shot of the electorate gets to make decisions that will affect the country for half a century. That just doesn't seem right, especially where there is such an even split among the popular vote.