Half of Brits want a second vote on Brexit – including a fifth of Reform voters, major poll finds

Almost half of the British public, including a fifth of Reform voters, want a second Brexit referendum, according to a major new poll a decade after Britain voted to leave the European Union.

Research by Ipsos, King’s College London and the UK in Changing Europe found that a majority of the public are open to a rapprochement with the EU, with almost half supporting a closer relationship and 60 per cent wanting more cooperation in defence.

The research also suggested that attitudes towards both the EU and the referendum have changed over the last 10 years.

The number of people who say Brexit is going worse than they expected has almost doubled in the last five years; From 27 percent in 2021 to 48 percent today; This proportion is higher than those who say it is going better than expected.

While in 2016 two-thirds of the public thought David Cameron was right to call a referendum, this figure has now fallen to 43 percent, while the number of people who say it was the wrong decision has increased from 24 percent to 38 percent.

Similarly, there is greater support for a second referendum; 48 percent say they would support it, while 27 percent oppose it.

The research found that even a fifth of Reform UK voters and a quarter of those who voted Leave in 2016 would support a second vote.

Proposing a new referendum on EU membership would also increase the number of people considering voting Labor at the next election from 31 percent to 45 percent; Only 27 percent said an offer to maintain the status quo would encourage them to vote for the party.

But Ipsos research director Keiran Pedley said attitudes towards the EU were still “complex”.

He said: “There is ostensibly an openness to taking more harmonization and rules to facilitate a stronger trading relationship, but arguments about sovereignty – particularly when it comes to immigration – remain unpersuasive.”

While 53 percent of the public said they would support a return to freedom of movement in exchange for access to the EU single market, the framing of the issue in terms of sovereignty revealed that people prioritized the control of migration over relations with the bloc.

While 52 percent say they prefer full border control and a more limited relationship with the EU, 38 percent say the opposite.

Professor Anand Menon, UK director of the Changing Europe think tank, said the research showed there was “no easy option when it comes to EU relations” and that each possibility presented “clear trade-offs”.

But despite the shift in attitudes towards the EU, Professor Bobby Duffy of King’s College London said views were moving “glacially slowly”, adding: “At this rate it will be many more years before we reach a clear demand for change.”

The debate over Britain’s EU membership has reignited after former health secretary Wes Streeting said the country should rejoin as part of his plan to lead Labor.

Mr Streeting, who is expected to launch a leadership challenge against Sir Keir Starmer after leaving government, last month said Britain’s decision to leave the European Union in 2016 was a “catastrophic mistake” and argued Britain should try to rejoin.

“We need a new special relationship with the EU, because Britain’s future is in Europe and one day – one day – it will return to the European Union.” he said.

comes later Independent He revealed that the bloc could speed up Britain’s return if it decides to rejoin, dispelling suggestions that Britain would be pushed to the back of the queue if it tries to reverse Brexit.

Sandro Gozi, head of the European delegation to the EU-UK Parliamentary Assembly, said the European Union would see the re-joining request from Britain as “a great victory for the European project” and insisted there would be a way to speed it up.

Brussels sources confirmed that the UK’s potential re-accession could happen much faster than other candidate countries due to its significant pre-existing alignment with the bloc.

The study surveyed 2,245 adults in Great Britain between May 15 and 20 this year.