Do opinion polls really show the British people want to rejoin the EU?

This new poll suggests that the real support for rejoining is much lower than the headline figures, writes John Rentoul

Given that we would be unlikely to be granted all the opt-outs and rebates we had before, would people really support giving membership another go? (Getty Images)

For a long time after the European Union referendum, public opinion seemed evenly divided, as it had been in the referendum itself, on the question of whether the vote to leave was right or wrong. Remainers tended to feel more strongly about it, the losing side being galvanised by defeat, a phenomenon familiar after the Scottish independence referendum in 2014.

But throughout the negotiation of the Brexit deals there was always a block of Remainers who thought we should leave the EU because that was what a majority, however narrowly, had voted for.

Britain finally left the EU single market on 1 January 2021, when the transitional period ended and, after about six months of the new arrangements, opinion started to turn against the idea. Now an average of 60 per cent say the vote to leave was “wrong” and 40 per cent say it was “right” (excluding about 12 per cent who say they don’t know).