Just One-in-Four Brexit Voters Now Think the UK is Better Off
Just One-in-Four Brexit Voters Now Think the UK is Better Off
EXCLUSIVE: Byline poll finds most voters say Brexit is making the UK poorer
Just one-in-four Brexit voters still believe the UK is better off for having left the EU, according to an exclusive new poll, commissioned by the Byline Supplement.
Only 28% of those who voted to leave the EU in 2016 told pollsters Omnisis that they now believe the UK is better off, compared to 29% who say it is worse off.
Overall, the poll found that 56% of all voters say the UK is now worse off for leaving the EU, compared to just 15% who say it is better off.
Voters also increasingly believe that Brexit has made them personally poorer, according to our poll.
Half of all voters (49%) said they were personally worse off because of Brexit, with just 11% saying they now felt better off.
However, despite this growing sense that Brexit is making the UK poorer, many Leave voters still believe it is a price worth paying.
Asked about a study this week by the Centre for European Reform, which showed that Brexit is costing the UK around £40 billion a year, 42% of those who voted Leave in 2016 described this as “a price worth paying” compared to just 17% who said it was not.
This sense that Brexit has hurt the UK economy does appear to have led to a shift towards voters wanting to rejoin the EU, however.
58% of all decided voters told Omnisis they would now vote to rejoin the EU, compared to 42% who said they would not.
Those wishing to rejoin the EU include many former Leave voters. According to our poll 17% of those saying they would now vote to rejoin, previously voted to leave in 2016.
Will Labour Turn Against Brexit?
As polls increasingly show that UK voters now regret the decision to leave the EU, Labour’s leader Keir Starmer remains resolutely opposed to pushing for Britain to rejoin the bloc.
Sources close to the Labour leader told the Byline Supplement that he believes that any shift towards calling for the UK to reconsider Brexit would badly damage the party’s chances of winning the next general election.
Some Labour strategists believe the next election could come as early as next year, and believe that taking a more pro-European position could cost them victory.
“It’s easy for people to say we need to be bolder, but we’ve been out of power for 12 years now and absolutely everything we say and do has to be focused on bringing that to an end,” one source close to Starmer told the Supplement.
However, our recent polling suggests that a more pro-European position could actually help Labour win the next election.
According to our polling, 65% of all voters say that if Labour promised to take the UK back into the EU, then it would either make them more likely to vote Labour or that it would make no difference.
Among current Labour voters, just 10% said they would be less likely to vote Labour if Starmer backed rejoining the EU, compared to 47% who said it would make them more likely to back them.
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2 questions I’d like answered in relation to this topic: 1. If the U.K. could build better trading relationships with the EU, would this change your view on Brexit? 2. Which issue influences your current thoughts about Brexit: economy, immigration, sovereignty? (rank in importance)
I’m not convinced any Party truly understands what’s currently influencing attitudes. Labour seems to have a weird and fuzzy view I’d like to see contextualised. Without that clarity I can’t see how they bring the country together, even if they win at the eventual election.
My personal view is that Labour should come out and say that this monetary nightmare need’s brought to a head and if this leads them to lose, so be it because Labour won’t be able to fix this mess so the madness falls at the Tory’s feet let them carry on and see how long they last before it will be just like it was when they tried introducing the Pole tax very nasty indeed!