Brexit: New poll says UK would vote to remain in the EU
Brits would vote 59-41 in favour of remaining in the EU if another Brexit referendum occurred today, according to a new poll.
The six-point swing away from Leave saw Remain win its highest level of support since the 2016 referendum, and contrasts the actual result at the time, which saw 52 per cent people vote to leave the EU, and 48 per cent to remain in the bloc.
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John Curtice, who authored the report published today by research bodies NatCen and The UK in a Changing Europe, said that while more than half his survey sample had voted Remain in the actual referendum, it still showed a sizeable shift in the view of the public.
“This still means that there has apparently been a six-point swing from Leave to Remain, larger than that registered by any of our previous rounds of interviewing, and a figure that would seemingly point to a 54 per cent (Remain) vote in any second referendum held now,” he said.
This was the fifth such survey since the Brexit vote in 2016.
It comes on the day Morning Wire revealed that former Brexit secretary David Davis is backing a rival strategy to the Prime Minister’s Chequers plan, in the wake of which he resigned from government.
It is understood that the Brexiteer, who has called the Chequers plan “almost worse than staying in the EU”, will write a foreword for the competing plan, dubbed the “Alternative Brexit Plan”.
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The plan will make the case for a Canada-style free trade agreement that offers improved provisions in services and security, among other areas.
The proposal comes as union GMB came out as backing a second EU referendum, with Labour’s Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, also open to a second vote if a no-deal Brexit leaves the UK on a “cliff edge” with no other options.