Almost twice as many voters now believe Brexit is having a negative effect on the UK economy as think it is benefiting the nation’s finances, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer, carried out during budget week.
The survey comes after Richard Hughes, the chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility, said his organisation calculated that the negative impact on GDP caused by the UK’s exit from the EU was expected to be twice as great as that resulting from the pandemic.
Hughes said Brexit would reduce the UK’s potential GDP by about 4% in the long term, while the pandemic would cut it “by a further 2%”. “In the long term, it is the case that Brexit has a bigger impact than the pandemic,” he said.
The survey by Savanta ComRes revealed that 52% believe that Brexit has delivered little, while 36% believe that Brexit has been a success.
In the five years since the referendum in June 2016, which saw Britons vote to leave the EU by a 52% to 48% margin, public attitudes have remained rigid and in a near 50/50 split should another referendum on membership be held.
However, the findings of the survey, of over 2,000 people, suggests that a significant proportion of Leave and Conservative party supporters are deeply underwhelmed by life outside the EU.
26% of Leave voters and one in third Conservative voters say that exiting the bloc has been a failure.
One in five of the voters for Boris Johnson’s party say that a policy to re-join the EU would improve the Conservative’s chances at the next election.
It's somewhat puzzling that there are 36% "believe it a success", but I guess that's the power of pointless populism.
As far as I can tell, though, there is no commentator who supported Brexit who can point to how its been a success.
Helen Dale, for example, would rather post 500 cat photos on Twitter, or go on about identity politics, than actually address the economic failure of a position she supported.
1 comment:
I suspect there is worse to cocme
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