Almost a third of Leave voters say they want the UK to have a closer post-Brexit relationship with the EU, new polling has found.
A Savanta ComRes survey for PoliticsHome found that 30 per cent of Leave voters said Britain should now forge closer ties with Brussels, while only 13 per cent want the country to be more distant.
Some 47 per cent of all voters favour a closer relationship with the bloc, compared with 14 per cent who want to be further apart.
“The fact that more Leavers told us they would like a closer relationship with the EU than those who’d like a more distant relationship with the EU is really interesting,” said Savanta’s political director Chris Hopkins.
The pollster added: “While the idea is not necessarily proven, it does play into the murmurings of Brexit regret.”
Polling guru Prof John Curtice said there has been “greater pessimism” about the impact of Brexit and “a detectable majority in favour of joining the EU” over the past 12 months.
“It’s very difficult to sell the idea that the policy has been economically successful when the economy is going down the tubes,” said Prof Curtice. “It’s a fundamental problem for the government and for the Leave side of the argument.”
The Savanta ComRes poll also found that almost one in three people (29 per cent) say Brexit is the main reason for labour shortages affecting hospitality, agriculture and the NHS.
Some 34 per cent per cent said Brexit was partly to blame for the problem, while 25 per cent do not believe it is a reason for the issue.
“There is definitely a sense that the process has been bungled and that the benefits which Leavers were promised haven’t really materialised,” Mr Hopkins said.
Only one in three who voted for Brexit six years ago believe it has been a success, according to the most recent YouGov poll. Overall, only 15 per cent of voters thought Brexit had been a success while 53 per cent said it had been a failure.
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