Rabble-rousing broadcaster talkRadio has sparked hundreds of reactions after sharing a poll on the EU referendum – and getting an answer it didn’t anticipate.
The radio station asked followers to say how they would vote if there was another referendum “tomorrow” on the UK’s European Union membership – and, at the time of writing 75.4 per cent said they would vote Remain, versus only 24.6 per cent voting to Leave.
The poll comes after a European Parliament report concluded British voters were not fully informed on the implications of Brexit during the 2016 referendum.
Reactions
“Scotland knew. Scotland voted remain. Scotland were dragged out,” one person said.
Campaigning group Bremain in Spain, who supports the rights of British citizens living in the EU, noted that when they shared the poll, 72 per cent had picked ‘Leave’, showing how much the results swung once it reached more people to vote.
One person claimed the poll results so far are probably not what the radio station expected when they posed the question.
Another said: “No question. I voted to remain back then and after seeing everything fall apart, I’d vote remain again!”
One Twitter user said “Brexit is and was one of the greatest threats to sovereignty and dignity of the United Kingdom minus Northern Ireland.”
“One of the greatest cons of the century aided by anti-immigrant rhettoric. Brexit will never ever go away and be done, whoever told you otherwise lies to you,” the user added.
Another said they “couldn’t agree more” with the fact that British people were not fully informed upon casting their vote. “Yes, there is an argument that no one could have known as it had never happened before. But it was rushed. It was too close to call and should have gone back to the public to vote again encouraging as many people to vote with some incentives.”
European Parliament report
MEPs believe they could have swung the vote for Remain if they had campaigned and warned the “often misled” British voters of the risks of leaving.
“British citizens had scant knowledge about the European Union and were not adequately informed about the far-reaching consequences of the decision to leave the union,” the report said.
“Citizens were never given a clear picture of the relationship that their country would have with the EU once it left, and were often misled about the implications of the withdrawal, especially as regards Northern Ireland.”
MEPs regretted the “restraint and limited engagement of the European Parliament and its committees in the run-up to the UK referendum”, saying it had left UK citizens “without full access to information on the functioning of the EU and the implications of the withdrawal”.
Related: Julia Hartley-Brewer: ‘Northern Ireland a price worth paying to deliver Brexit’