Half of Voters Back Rejoining the EU, a New Megapoll Finds
Rejoining was the most popular of seven options put to 11,461 people, with 49% in favour and 28.5% against — support for the Prime Minister’s stated personal preference. But cabinet ministers worried about reopening Brexit divides are privately urging caution, and two-thirds of the cabinet, Burnham included, represent seats that voted to leave and previously said they would respect the result.
The poll strengthens the argument inside Downing Street for promising at the next election at least to negotiate over re-entry — a narrower commitment than rejoining and a wider one than the review announced on Tuesday. The resistance is geographic rather than ideological. Louise Haigh, John Healey and Ed Miliband all sit for Leave-voting seats, and the nervousness among backbenchers in such constituencies is less about the policy than about who gains from the argument; one cabinet source described “an awareness among a number of cabinet ministers with leave voting seats that opinions are going to differ”. The Home Secretary has already said publicly that rejoining is “not a simple, straightforward thing” and that the costs might be unacceptable. Nigel Farage spent Thursday calling the whole argument the biggest boost of his career. The poll also found Labour’s own vote share rising by between four and seven points in every closer-ties scenario tested, mostly at the expense of the Greens and Liberal Democrats, which is the finding Downing Street will read first. Watch whether a manifesto commits to negotiating or only to reviewing, because those are very different promises.