Politics

Majority of Brits say Brexit referendum should never have been called

The majority of British voters now say a referendum on Britain’s EU membership should never have been called.

According to an Opinium poll for the Observer 57 per cent of adults said they believed it would have been better not to have had a public vote in June 2016.

This compares with 29 per cent of voters who believe it was right to hold the referendum on whether the UK should stay in or leave the EU.

Those who voted to remain in the EU are overwhelmingly of the view that the referendum should not have taken place, with 87 per cent agreeing and only 7 per cent saying it was a good idea.

Almost a third of those who voted to leave now think the same, although a majority (57 per cent) still think it was right to have put the question to the people.

Poll of polls

The results come after the biggest ever poll of polls found Britain has turned against Brexit.

With political deadlock shrouding Parliament the analysis found 204 out of 226 polls since July 2017 have shown Remain ahead, with just seven for Leave, and 15 ties.

So far this year, just one poll has put Leave ahead, compared to 74 for staying in the EU.

Parliament v the People

The results appear to undermine the idea, being fuelled by No 10 chief adviser Dominic Cummings, that Brexit is turning into a “Parliament v the People” clash.

Anthony Wells, director of political research at YouGov, said: “The polling evidence is concrete. The overwhelming majority of questions asking people if Brexit is right or wrong, or if they would now vote Remain or Leave, show a lead for Remain, and have done for over two years.

“The characterisation of the situation as People vs Parliament doesn’t really stand up when the public are split over Brexit.

“It is more a case of half the public vs half of Parliament.”

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Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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