Britons are increasingly regretting the decision to leave the EU, if you can believe a new poll from the Tony Blair Institute that was taken as the nation approaches the seventh anniversary of the Brexit referendum.
The survey of 1525 adults found that over 50% of respondents regretted the decision to exit the EU and only 34% of respondents continued to think exiting the bloc was the right decision.
In addition, 78% of the respondents wanted the UK to develop a closer relationship with the EU in the future. Even “leave” voters saw 71% of their ranks favor the UK drawing closer to the EU.
43% of respondents would like to see the UK rejoin the EU, while 13% said they would prefer a return to the single market alone. Roughly 20% would like to see closer ties with the countries within the bloc, however they would not want to see the UK rejoin the bloc as a member, or as part of the single market.
Anton Spisak, the head of political leadership at the institute, said of the findings, “Our polling shows that there is a large majority of the British public who recognize that Brexit in its current form isn’t working and would like to see the UK moving closer to the EU. This creates a substantial political space to move the debate forward from refighting the old battles about whether Brexit was right or wrong, to discussing what an improved future relationship with the EU should look like.”
Spisak said the EU would always be “a key strategic ally” of the UK.
He went on to say, “It is absurd that the bloc has deeper trading arrangements with Israel and Georgia, better regulatory recognition on food-safety standards with Canada and New Zealand, and deeper mechanisms for political cooperation with nations including Australia and Japan.”
The poll was contained within a report titled, ‘Moving Forward: The Path to a Better Post-Brexit Relationship Between the UK and the EU’ which examined ways the UK and EU could forge a closer economic relationship. Although the report fell short of recommending a return to the EU, it made a number of technical recommendations which would aid the UK cooperate with the EU.
These included voluntarily abiding by EU regulations on goods, such as product rules and safety standards for food, linking the UK and EU’s emissions trading systems, improving the mobility of business people across borders, and other similar adjustments.
On June 23, 2016 the UK population voted to exit the EU. The nation also exited the bloc’s single market in early 2021. As the UK and EU have set about redrawing new trade rules to govern their new relationship, the UK economy has stagnated. The UK Office for Budgetary Responsibility has said Brexit was responsible directly for a 15% reduction in the UK’s “trade intensity,” a term the agency used to describe the nation’s access to the global economy.
