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Just 9% of Britons say Brexit more of a success than failure, poll suggests

By a margin of almost two to one, people now believe voting to leave the EU in 2016 was the wrong call.

Sophie Wingate
Monday 22 May 2023 15:58 BST
Anti-Brexit campaigners outside the Houses of Parliament in London (Jonathan Brady/PA)
Anti-Brexit campaigners outside the Houses of Parliament in London (Jonathan Brady/PA) (PA Archive)

Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to new polling.

Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure, a YouGov survey shows.

The public opinion and data company said ā€œBregretā€ has reached new highs, as the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%.

Nearly double – 56% – say it was the wrong move.

The number of Leave voters who think it was wrong hit the highest level to date, at 22%, YouGov said.

The figures suggest that many people agree with Nigel Farage, the former leader of Ukip and the Brexit Party, when he said last week that Britain’s EU exit ā€œhas failedā€.

Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.

Most of them would join Mr Farage in pointing the finger of blame at the Tories, with 75% saying that ā€œBrexit had the potential to be a success but the implementation of it by this and/or previous governments made it a failā€.

The former Eurosceptic campaigner-turned-broadcaster accused the Conservative Government of mismanaging Brexit since the UK left the bloc in 2020.

Some 72% of Britons say that the Government is handling Brexit badly, including 63% of Leave voters.

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