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Quarter of Brexit voters say they were misled, poll finds

Remain would win if another referendum was held tomorrow, research shows

Chloe Farand
Tuesday 22 August 2017 09:42 BST
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Vote Leave’s campaign bus falsely claimed leaving the EU would free £350m a week for the NHS
Vote Leave’s campaign bus falsely claimed leaving the EU would free £350m a week for the NHS (Getty)

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A quarter of Leave voters believe they were misled during the Brexit campaign, a poll has found.

According to a survey by Opinium, 26 per cent of all Brexit voters said they were misled by promises made during the campaign.

The poll also found that the UK voters would opt to remain in the EU if another referendum was held today.

One of the main arguments used by the Leave campaign was the false promise of an additional £350m a week for the NHS, which has since been proven not to be true.

In May, Jeremy Hunt admitted the government could not deliver on the Brexiteers' pledge.

When respondents were asked whether they believed the £350m pledge, a quarter of all voters said they did: 35 per cent of Leave voters and 16 per cent of voters who voted to Remain.

The poll found that more than a year after the vote, half of all respondents found the Leave campaign mostly or completely misleading with only 19 per cent describing it as truthful.

It also showed that if there was another referendum about whether or not the UK should leave the EU, 47 per cent of respondents said they would vote Remain, against 44 per cent who said they would vote to leave.

Five per cent of people responded that they did not know and three per cent said they would not vote.

Asked whether they believed there should be a second referendum which would allow voters to choose between leaving under the terms negotiated or remaining in the EU, only 37 per cent agreed and 49 per cent opposed the idea.

Overall, 39 per cent of respondents said they expected to be financially worse off over the next two years because of Brexit, including 58 per cent of those who voted Remain and 23 per cent of respondents who voted Leave.

The same question was asked when considering the next decade: still, half of respondents who wanted to remain in the EU said they would be worse off, while only 9 per cent of those who voted Leave believed it would affect their finances.

Nearly half of respondents, or 47 per cent, also said they disapproved of the way Theresa May handled the Brexit process, with 28 per cent approving of her actions.

Among those who voted Leave, 36 per cent said they disapproved of Ms May's handling of the process.

A total of 2,006 people took part in the poll.

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