Half UK voters support Brexit referendum

A new poll shows half of British voters support a referendum to choose between staying in the EU, leaving with a deal or leaving with no deal.

Half of British voters support a referendum to choose between staying in the European Union, leaving with a deal that the government may clinch with the EU or leaving with no deal, Sky News reports, citing its own poll.

The poll showed 40 per cent opposed such a vote, while 10 per cent did not know.

With less than eight months left until Britain is due to leave the EU, there is little clarity about how trade will flow as Prime Minister Theresa May, who is grappling with a rebellion in her party, struggles to strike a deal with the bloc.

May has stepped up planning for a so called "no-deal" Brexit that would see the world's fifth largest economy crash out of the EU on March 29, 2019, a step that could spook financial markets and dislocate trade flows across Europe and beyond.

The Sky poll showed 78 per cent of voters thought May's government was doing a bad job of negotiating Brexit, up 23 percentage points from March. Just 10 per cent thought the government was doing a good job.

May's approval rating has fallen to 24 per cent, the poll showed. Voters were split on whether Brexit would be good or bad for the country: 40 per cent said it would be good and 51 per cent said it would be bad.

In the June 23, 2016 referendum, 17.4 million voters, or 51.9 per cent of the votes cast, backed leaving the EU while 16.1 million voters, or 48.1 per cent of votes cast, backed staying. Many opinion polls were wrong about the result.

When asked to choose between three options - May's deal, a no deal or staying in the EU - 48 per cent said they would prefer to stay in the EU, 27 per cent wanted to leave with no deal and 13 per cent would opt for the government's deal.

Eight per cent said they would not vote while 3 per cent did not know.

Sky Data interviewed a nationally representative sample of 1466 Sky customers online 20-23 July 2018. Data are weighted to the profile of the population.


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Published 30 July 2018 5:42pm
Source: AAP


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