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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)

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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 “Bregret” 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 “has failed”.

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 “Brexit had the potential to be a success but the implementation of it by this and/or previous governments made it a fail”.

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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