This master s thesis seeks to understand the mobilisation of images of British culture, which are already fraught with affections, in pro-Brexit discourses and the relations between these images, taking into account the category of race. Having as theoretical contribution the studies on affections and emotions in International Relations and the reception of Lacanian psychoanalysis in world politics studies, I reflect on the extent to which a postcolonial melancholy and an anti-immigration sentiment, anchored in the attachment to certain versions of the nation and crossed by whiteness, contributed to the decision of part of the population to withdraw the United Kingdom s from the European Union. Following an affective discourse analysis, I examine the affective and symbolic dimension of the Leave Campaign discourses in 2015 and 2016, the year of the referendum. I gather discourses made by Brexit-supporting politicians as well as pictures and photographs in order to more closely understand the emotional appeal of these discourses and how these emotions are associated with symbols present in the collective imaginary, for example, the nation and the National Health Service (NHS). I argue that the Leave Campaign played a relevant political role in emotionally directing segments of the population that were against immigration because this campaign was able to better understand and channel a particular affective atmosphere. I hope this research will contribute to the burgeoning field of affect and emotion studies in world politics regarding the emotional appeal of political discourses and affective investments in the nation, as well as point to new interpretationss of Brexit through an affective analysis which takes into account the persistence of the category of race.