Photo: PA
A new poll has revealed that just 25 per cent of the British public think Brexit is going well.
The YouGov survey of 3,249 adults found Conservative voters were the most likely to think the UK’s split from the European Union has been a success, although that number only just constitutes a majority (51 per cent).
Leave voters, on the hand, are less optimistic, with just 45 per cent saying it is going well, while 92 per cent of Remain voters say it is going badly.
Just five per cent of Labour voters think it is going well.
The UK voted to leave the EU on 23rd June 2016, with the five year anniversary set to be marked in a couple of days.
The referendum resulted in 51.9 per cent of the votes cast being in favour of leaving the EU.
Although the referendum was legally non-binding, the government of the time promised to implement the result.
The succeeding government, led by Theresa May, initiated the official withdrawal process on 29 March 2017, meaning that the UK was due to leave the EU on 29 March 2019 (when the two-year period for Brexit negotiations was due to expire).
This negotiation period was later extended until 31 October 2019.
After May failed to secure the backing of Parliament on her Brexit deal, she resigned as prime minister, and was succeeded by Boris Johnson.
Johnson then extended the negotiation period again until 31 January. At 11 pm GMT on 31 January 2020, the UK officially withdrew from the EU.
Last week it was revealed that food exports to the EU had nosedived in the first few months of the year.
Sales to non-EU countries made up 55 per cent of all UK food and drink exports in the first three months of 2021 compared to less than 40 per cent a year earlier, according to data from the Food and Drink Federation.
However, this is not thanks to any major boom in exports to non-EU countries, which only rose by 0.3 per cent, the group said.
It means that overall exports of food and drink sunk to £3.7 billion from £5.1 billion a year earlier.
“The loss of £2 billion of exports to the EU is a disaster for our industry, and is a very clear indication of the scale of losses that UK manufacturers face in the longer-term due to new trade barriers with the EU,” said the federation’s head of international trade Dominic Goudie.
Related: Cummings: It is ‘impossible to describe how horrific decision-making is’ in Govt
