Another hidden cost of Brexit has been laid bare – people will be less willing to help the UK in a crisis

We suspected it from the Eurovision Song Contest; now an academic survey has confirmed it: people in other European countries have a negative view of the UK, says John Rentoul

The UK may not get the help it needs from its EU counterparts in the wake of Brexit (Getty Images)

The question began: “Imagine a country suffered some kind of major crisis, and was looking for help from others.” People across Europe were asked how willing their country should be to offer financial help to other countries. The UK came near the bottom of the list, below all EU countries and ahead of only Tunisia and Colombia.

The huge opinion poll was carried out by YouGov in 13 EU countries and the UK, and has just been published. If you find the Eurovision Song Contest voting depressing, look away now: in nine EU countries more people would be “unwilling” to help the UK in a crisis than “willing”. In only four countries is the balance the other way round, so now we know who our friends are: the Danes, the Poles, the Swedes and the Romanians (although note that only half of EU countries were surveyed).

We British, on the other hand, are models of European generosity, being willing, on balance, to help out all 27 EU members, even though we have now left their club. Our renunciation of EU membership must be one of the biggest causes of these findings, which expose the damage to Britain’s reputation from Brexit.