Stefan Rousseau/PA
More than half of the British public think that Brexit has been bad for the British economy, with only a little over 10 per cent believing that is not the case, according to a poll of 2,000 people conducted by Omnium for The Observer.
The starkness of the public’s awareness of what a disaster Brexit has been for the UK is shown in the number of areas where more of those polled believed that Brexit has had a negative effect than a positive one include the ability of UK companies to import or export goods; on salaries and wages; on the environment; prices in the shops and most damningly on the UK and the UK economy as a whole.
Just 22 per cent of voters believe that Brexit has been good for the UK in general, with only one person in 10 believing that Brexit has been good for their own personal financial situation.
Most significantly for the coming year is that the election looks likely to be dominated by concerns about cost of living, housing, the NHS and immigration. On these issues more voters also think that Brexit has had a negative effect with over 50 per cent believing that Brexit has hampered the ability of the UK to deal with immigration. That just under 50 per cent believe that Brexit has been good for the NHS as against fewer than one in 10 believing it has been bad for the NHS is particularly ironic given the brazen claim during the referendum that Brexit would deliver £350 million a week of extra funding for the NHS.
A clear majority of the British public now believes Brexit has been bad for the UK economy, has driven up prices in shops, and has hampered government attempts to control immigration, according to a poll by Opinium to mark the third anniversary of the UK leaving the EU single market and customs union.
It seems almost surreal now to think back to the claims of sunlit uplands and economic boosterism that were made during the referendum by Brexiteers, and it seems that the views of the British public are moving firmly away from the fantasies that were peddled by the likes of Gove, Boris and, lest we forget, Rishi Sunak. This is underlined by recent polling showing the scale of the defeat that would be suffered by the Tories if current polling is reflective of voting at a general election next year, as we reported last week.
With the disciplined and thoughtful positions taken by Labour under Starmer now gaining support across all areas of the UK and all demographics, the desperate hopes of the Tories that fear of Labour will lead to Labour’s poll lead tightening ahead of an election could be seriously misplaced. Rather, polls such as this one which show increasing disenchantment with the Tories and Brexit could have the opposite effect: the longer Sunak holds on, the worse the defeat could become.
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