The Guardian Weekly

Majority of voters want to forge closer ties with EU

A clear majority of British voters favours building closer relations with the European Union, according to new polling that highlights a reversal in the tide of public opinion since Brexit.

Even in constituencies that recorded the highest votes to leave the EU in 2016, more than twice as many voters want to forge closer ties with Brussels.

The survey of more than 10,000 voters, for the internationalist campaign group Best for Britain, accompanied by detailed MRP (multilevel regression and poststratification) analysis based on new constituency boundaries, provides sober reading for Rishi Sunak, who backed Brexit as a route to greater economic success.

The poll by Focaldata found three times as many adults (63%) believe Brexit has created more problems than it has solved, compared with 21% who believe it has solved more than it has created.

Overall, 53% of voters now want the government to seek a closer relationship with the EU than it now has, against just 14% who want the UK to become more distant. In Boston and Skegness in Lincolnshire, where the vote to leave the EU was 74.9% in 2016, more than twice as many people (40%) now want closer links with the EU.

The polling comes after the release last week of official figures showing that net migration to the UK rose to a new high of more than 606,000 in 2022 – a 24% increase on the previous high of 488,000 in 2021 – despite government claims that Brexit would allow the UK to “take back control” of its borders.

Global Report

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2023-06-02T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-02T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://theguardianweekly.pressreader.com/article/281784223475114

Guardian/Observer