Brexit ‘has made everything from economy to immigration worse in UK’
British voters believe Brexit has made everything in Britain worse, from the economy to immigration, and left the country with less control over its own destiny.
And if we apply to rejoin the European Union, European voters will welcome us with open arms.
These are among the findings of a major new survey that is likely to put more pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to restore ties with the EU, a decade after Britain voted to leave in a referendum.
The survey of 20,000 people from 27 leading democracies, including the US and Europe, suggests that Britons are the most pessimistic about the future of their nation. And the UK’s disillusioned 28-year-old adult ‘Gen Z’ is losing faith in democracy.
They are twice as likely as so-called ‘Baby Boomers’ aged 61 to 79 to prefer an authoritarian leader running the country without elections.
Some of the most striking findings of the survey, conducted by Yonder Data Solutions, formerly known as Populus, on behalf of public relations giant FGS Global, are related to Brexit.
Voters in the UK are deeply unhappy with the way the process is going. The main slogan of leading Brexiteers such as Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage was that this would allow the UK to ‘take back control’.
But 72 per cent of British voters said we now have less, not more, control over our jobs than before. Only 15 percent believe the slogan delivers on its promise.
Two thirds (66 per cent) said Brexit was damaging the economy; but a fifth (22 per cent) said it had a positive impact.
During the Brexit referendum, supporters of Remain in the EU, who warned that the UK’s departure would have serious consequences, were accused of running a ‘Project Fear’ campaign of false claims. The poll found that most voters now believe the bad predictions were correct.
A total of 55 percent said the warnings were accurate; 23 percent said these claims were not true.
Moreover, some people believe that Brexiteers were misled when they claimed that cutting ties with Brussels would solve the migration crisis.
Just 22 per cent of Britons said it gave us more power over our borders; 66 percent said they failed to do so. Meanwhile, voters in the EU think Britain’s departure has made things worse for them, too.
Less than a fifth (19 per cent) of European voters said the EU was better off without the UK; One in two (50 percent) said their situation was no better.
A clear majority of Europeans (66 percent) want the UK to rejoin the EU, while only 16 percent do not want the UK to rejoin the EU.
Although European voters believe the EU would be weaker without the UK, they think the negative effects of Brexit on the UK make other countries less likely to leave.
A total of 59 per cent said Brexit showed leaving the EU was a mistake; 24 percent said they did not show this.
Despite pessimism among UK voters about the impact of Brexit, the poll shows the British public is conflicted about whether to take the dramatic step of rejoining the EU. In the 2016 referendum, the decision to leave was approved by a small margin of 52 percent to 48 percent.
When asked in the FGS Global poll whether the UK should rejoin, one in two (50 per cent) said it should; 38 percent said it should not be done. On the face of it, this strengthens pro-European claims that the referendum could be reversed.
But the survey seems to reinforce the theory that the outcome may be affected by the way the question is asked.
When asked separately whether the UK should not rejoin, a different picture emerges: 49 percent said they agreed; 36 percent disagree.
The survey also paints a striking picture of Britons’ wider hopes and fears about the year ahead and their concerns about the future of the country.
Only 14 per cent think Britain’s ‘best years are ahead of us’ (lower than voters in other major nations surveyed). 67 percent said the UK’s ‘best years are behind us’. Similarly, in Britain, 73 percent of people said the country was ‘going in the wrong direction’.
When asked ‘whether life will be better for the next generation’, only one in ten agree; lowest rate in the survey; 77 percent said the situation would not get better. Voters in the UK also appear to be losing faith in their ability to use elections to make things better – and this is more evident than in other countries, where it is young Britons who are hardest hit.
More than one in four people in the UK (27 per cent) say voting ‘makes no difference’ to their lives (the highest proportion in the survey), while 65 per cent disagree.
The survey provides further evidence of the trend favoring so-called ‘strongman leaders’ over traditional democratically elected leaders.
A total of 12 per cent of Britons said they preferred ‘authoritarian leaders who don’t bother with elections’; 79 percent said they support democratically elected leaders. And this trend shows a clear divide between young and old.
A total of 18 per cent of UK ‘Gen Z’ support authoritarian leaders; 72 percent prefer democracy. By contrast, only seven per cent of British ‘Baby Boomers’ support authoritarian leaders; An overwhelming 87 percent are in favor of democracy.
The poll found that voters in the free world believe democracy faces a systemic crisis.
69 percent of participants think democracy is weakening. Most people (74 per cent) believe the current system serves the ‘rich and powerful elite’ rather than ordinary working people. More than two-thirds (69 per cent) believe that ‘strong leaders increasingly wield power from international institutions’.
A total of 19,787 people participated in the FS Global survey, including 2,022 in the UK and 11,714 in the EU.
