Britain | Buyers’ remorse

As Britons grow more unhappy with Brexit, what happens next?

Don’t expect anyone to talk of rejoining the EU

Anti-Brexit campaigners in Parliament Square, London
Image: Alamy

POLITICS IS routinely dominated by the short run: in-party scraps; looming by-elections. But quietly shifting and longer-term trends risk being neglected. One such is the rise of disillusion with Brexit. Polls from YouGov, Ipsos and NatCen Social Research all find that sizeable majorities of Britons now regret the decision to leave the European Union. The latest numbers show a margin as wide as 60-40% for those wishing that Britain had remained in the EU, compared with the 52-48% vote to leave in June 2016.

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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Buyers’ deeper remorse”

From the July 1st 2023 edition

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