increasing number of Britons say the UK was wrong with Brexit, according to a Standard analysis of more than 200 polls.
It showed that an average of just under 49 per cent of adults believe it was a mistake, compared to just over 38 per cent who still say it was the right decision, with 13 per cent “not knowing”, according to 11 surveys performed this year.
The average annual gap between those who believe it was “wrong” to vote for Leave compared to “right” rose to double digits for the first time in 2022 to 10.6 percentage points.
That is almost double the gap of 5.5 percentage points from last year, and much higher than 6.4 percentage points in 2020 and just under seven points in 2019, according to the analysis of 211 polls that asked whether people afterwards think Britain is right or wrong to vote to leave the EU.
The latest figures also compare with the result of 52 to 48 Brexit referendums in 2016 for Britain to leave the European Union.
The findings came as the government apparently tried to avoid making any public assessment of Brexit’s economic impact so far since the country voted for Abandonment six years ago.
Brexit minister Jacob Rees-Mogg recently declined to say whether the government had conducted any such studies and if so what they had revealed, suggesting that other assessments were “bilge”.
But Labor MP Hilary Benn, co-convener of the UK Trade and Business Commission, said: “It has made (Brexit) life more difficult for UK businesses trying to sell to Europe because it has a lot of costs , bureaucracy and red tape on them.
“But a decision has been made and the question now is how do we build a new and different relationship with our European neighbors.”
Sarah Olney, Liberal Democrat business spokeswoman and MP for Richmond, said: “The government’s failed trade deals have plunged our businesses into red tape and increased costs for families.
“Ministers should work hard to get our economy back on track.”
Britain’s former Brexit negotiator, Lord Frost, acknowledged that the EU’s exit may have hit the UK’s goods exports by five per cent, but he believes the country’s’ performance continues to improve, and this figure could very well continue. changes as the numbers normalize “.
He also doubts that the exit from the EU will have any “measurable impact on our GDP in any way”.
Patrick English, co-director of political and social research at YouGov, stressed that there has been no dramatic shift in the country’s view of Brexit over the years.
He said: “Between YouGov’s first poll on this issue and the figures today, there was only about a 6-point increase in the percentage of people who think Brexit was the ‘wrong’ decision, and a slightly larger one, but still small, decrease in the percentage of people who think it was ‘right’. ”
He added: “A large part of the growing up in the wrong vs. real gap can be attributed to generational replacement alone, with Brexit supporters most likely older and those who supported Remain much younger.
“The relative stability of attitudes reflects how deeply the Brexit divide has entrenched itself in British politics and public opinion, and has evolved to become much more a political identity than a policy preference.”
The Treasury has been largely silent on the impact of Brexit and the Bank of England has been accused of being reluctant to talk about it to prevent the government from being upset.
But a recent report by The Resolution Foundation, in collaboration with the London School of Economics, warned that Brexit would hit workers’ real wages by around 470 a year, compared to what it would have been, and hurt Britain’s competitiveness.
Another report, by the Center for European Reform, estimated that the UK had hit a £ 31 billion blow to Brexit’s GDP in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Meanwhile, the government’s attempt to effectively tear down parts of the Northern Ireland protocol has cleared up its first Commons hurdle, with no Tory MPs voting against it despite warnings that the plans are illegal.
MPs voted 295 to 221, majority 74, to give the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill a second reading, paving the way for it to undergo detailed scrutiny in the coming weeks.
Voting lists showed that dozens of Conservative MPs abstained and joined former Prime Minister Theresa May, making it clear she would not support the legislation as she warned it would “reduce” the UK’s worldview and provided a dwindling assessment of its legality and impact.
Following the outcome, Foreign Minister Liz Truss tweeted the bill, which gives ministers powers to ignore parts of the post-Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland, “provides practical solutions to problems caused by the protocol becomes and protects the Belfast Agreement (Good Friday).
“While a negotiated outcome remains our preference – the EU must accept changes to the protocol itself,” she added.