Nationwide logistics and delivery problems: Brexit is more unpopular in the UK than it has been for a long time. Polls show that 57 percent of Britons now regret leaving the EU. However, there will probably be no turning back any time soon.
According to pollsters, the majority of Britons now consider Brexit to be a mistake. “Probably Brexit is more unpopular now than it has been since June 2016,” said political scientist John Curtice. The chairman of the British Polling Council, an association of polling institutes in the United Kingdom, predicted a defeat for the ruling Tories in the next general election.
In the Brexit referendum in 2016, 51.9 percent of participants voted to leave the EU, while 48.1 percent voted to remain in the EU. According to surveys, Brexit advocates are now clearly in the minority. According to this, only around 43 percent of Britons believe that the decision was right, while 57 percent regret leaving the EU.
The trend in the polls has been clear since autumn 2021, said Curtice. At that time, a shortage of truck drivers, which led to nationwide logistics and delivery problems, made the consequences of leaving the EU clear to the British. With the cost of living rising, the gap between those who support Brexit and those who think leaving the EU was a mistake has widened since the beginning of the year. However, the opposition Labor Party will not start a debate about renewed EU membership or re-entering the EU’s single market before the next election, so as not to scare voters, Curtice said.
The Conservative Tories are currently lagging behind the Labor Party given the government chaos of recent months. Since taking office at the end of October, the new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has helped to halt the downward slide for the time being, pollster Curtice said. Nevertheless, it will be “extremely difficult” for the Tories. “No government that was in office during a financial crisis ended up surviving at the ballot box,” Curtice said. The people are of the opinion that the conservatives can no longer “be trusted to lead the country.”
