British nationals are increasingly regretting their decision to leave the European Union in the move known as Brexit, which, despite Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying it brought benefits to the UK, more than half of the population would vote to remain in the EU.
According to the results of the YouGov survey, if the referendum was to be held again, 55 per cent of respondents said they would vote to remain in the EU, while 31 per cent said they would stay out.
While three in ten respondents, representing 31 per cent of the total, said they would vote to leave the EU, it indicates that one in six leave voters, or 18 per cent, would change their mind and instead vote to remain in the EU if the referendum would be held again.
In addition, the data show that the interest to remain in the EU has increased, with 49 per cent of respondents voting to remain in the EU back in 2021, which grew to 55 per cent in 2023.
The number of people that would not vote or aren’t certain remains the same as in 2021; 13 per cent of the total respondents.
Among those that voted to leave the EU in 2021, the survey found that from 81 per cent of respondents, it shrank to 73 per cent in 2023. Similarly, from nine per cent of respondents that voted to remain in the EU, these rates doubled to 18 per cent in 2022. Additionally, the number of people who are uncertain about their decision grew by one per cent among leave voters.
Currently, 57 per cent of Britons say the 2016 decision to leave the EU was wrong, which is the highest figure YouGov has recorded to date. By comparison, one in three respondents (32 per cent) thinks this decision was right and appropriate, while one in five Leave voters (19 per cent) now say it was the wrong decision.
On top of thousands of respondents that have changed their minds and would vote to remain in the EU, seven in ten Brits say that the government handled Brexit poorly. The trend shows that the number of respondents that think the government handled the exit badly has been increasing since 2021, while the number of those that think the opposite is constantly dropping, to be hitting its lowest rate at 18 per cent.
Leaving the EU has had some severe impact on the British economy, as data by the OECD reveals that the GDP growth has decreased by 0.4 per cent since 2019, while other countries have experienced increases – such as Germany and France, with 0.3 and 1.1 per cent increases in economic growth during the same period.
