A Majority of Voters Think Brexit Has Gone Badly... That Doesn't Mean They Want to Rejoin
To coincide with the seven year anniversary of the Brexit vote, UK in a Changing Europe have published polling taking a deep dive into the extent of Brexit regret. The pressure group has produced 537 pages of tables, if any committed readers fancy trawling through the data, with a full report set to be published soon.
Amongst the headline findings are that just 10% of voters think Brexit has, so far, gone well. A slim majority, ironically of 52%, think Brexit has gone badly. Even Leave voters are more likely to think Brexit has, on the whole, turned out badly - by a margin of 4%.
The numbers for Brexit do get slightly better when voters are asked whether Brexit will go well in the long-run. A respectable 30% think Brexit will work out well, compared to 43% who disagree. A strong majority of leave voters, 61%, stil, think Brexit will come good.
This perhaps adds some nuance to discussions of Brexit regret. Although voters think it has, so far, gone badly, they are much more likely to believe it has undelivered promise. In this vein its understandable that a majority seem to see Brexit as a settled issue - 54% wish we would stop talking about it.
Likewise, although there is appetite for a second referendum, it isn't quite a majority of voters. Nor would a majority vote to rejoin. One proposal that does have strong support is forming a "stronger relationship" with the EU, which 64% of voters would like. This perhaps adds some context to Labour's reluctance to campaign for a full-throated Pro-EU position, whilst signalling a desire for closer ties.
