Fifty per cent of Brits think the UK was wrong to leave the European Union, a new poll has revealed.
As the country seems headed inexorably towards No Deal, a YouGov poll found that half the population believes Brexit was a mistake – a four per cent spike from the last survey, taken at the beginning of September.
Just 39 per cent of people think the UK made the right decision to leave the EU, a drop of two per cent from earlier this month.
Despite the apparent shift in public opinion, there is little hope of a change of course in Westminster.
It is a stark contrast with Switzerland, where this past weekend voters overwhelmingly opted to retain freedom of movement with the EU – six years after the country narrowly voted to introduce quotas on EU immigrants in a controversial referendum.
The Swiss are given a direct say in their country’s governance under its system of direct democracy, and are regularly invited to vote on major issues in national referendums.
The landmark YouGov poll comes as the ninth round of trade talks between London and Brussels is set to get underway – with the two sides continuing to clash over Boris Johnson’s controversial Internal Market Bill.
At talks in Brussels on Monday, European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic reiterated calls for ministers to scrap provisions in the legislation which could see the UK unilaterally tear up elements of the Brexit divorce deal.
At a news conference following the meeting of the joint committee on the implementation of the agreement, Sefcovic said the EU “will not be shy” in taking legal action if the UK does not withdraw measures from the draft Bill by the end of the month.
However the Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, who co-chairs the committee with Sefcovic, said the Government intended to continue with passage of the Bill, which is due to go through its report stage in the Commons on Tuesday.
He said the provisions relating to the Northern Ireland protocol in the agreement were a legal “safety net” to ensure the Government could continue to protect the peace process if talks on a post-Brexit free trade deal fail.
Related: Swiss voters reject ending free movement with EU in referendum
