Brexit regrets? A new poll suggests the UK has had a few since leaving the EU
The polling firm says the number of people saying the UK was right to leave has fallen to an all-time low
A new poll suggests that British voters fear Brexit was “more of a failure” than a success.
Speaking on the BBC’s Newsnight program last week, former UKIP leader and Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage expressed frustration with the way things have unfolded.
He started a sentence with the words “Brexit failed…” but was cut off by the interviewer before he could finish what he was saying.
However, he also said: ‘We ignored Brexit and the Tories let us down very, very badly.’
And polls suggest the British public agrees things haven’t gone as well as they could have, raising the question of whether the nation has ‘bregrets’.
The YouGov poll shows that 62% of respondents agree with the statement that Brexit was more of a failure than a success, with just 9% considering it “more of a success”. Another 20% describe it as neither, while the remaining 9% are unsure.
Remainer voters, perhaps unsurprisingly, overwhelmingly believe Brexit was a failure, with 89% agreeing with the statement “rather a failure”. However, even among Brexit voters, 37% see it more as a failure, 35% see it neither as a failure nor a success, and 20% currently see it as more of a success.
Most Leave voters blamed the current Conservative government. A total of 75% say that “Brexit had the potential to be a success, but its implementation by this government and/or previous ones made it a failure”.
However, most who see Brexit as a failure think it was doomed from the start. A total of 56% say “Brexit was always going to be a failure, and there was nothing any government could do to make it a success”. This includes 77% of remaining voters who see Brexit as a failure.
This raises the question of whether the UK is suffering from “Bregret”. The number of people who believe the nation was right to vote to leave in 2016 has fallen to an all-time low of 31%. Most think it was the wrong choice, at 56%. The number of Leave voters who believe Brexit was the right choice also fell, to 65%.
euronews Gt
