Analysis of more than 200 polls has revealed that Brits have now turned against Brexit – with a ten-point gap opening between those who believed it was right to vote out and those who believe it was a mistake.
An Evening Standard study has shown that an average of just under 49 per cent of adults now believe voting to leave the European Union was the wrong thing to do, compared to just over 38 per cent who still say it was the right decision.
The average annual gap between those who believe it was “wrong” to vote to Leave compared to “right” has risen into double digits for the first time in 2022, to 10.6 percentage points.
This is almost double the 5.5 percentage point gap of last year, and far higher than 6.4 percentage points in 2020 and just under seven points in 2019, according to the analysis of 211 polls which asked whether in hindsight people thought Britain was right or wrong to vote to leave the EU.
It comes as the government voted to rip up parts of its Brexit agreement last night, with MPs voting 295 to 221, majority 74, to give the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill a second reading, which clears the way for it to undergo detailed scrutiny in the coming weeks.
Voting lists showed that dozens of Conservative MPs abstained, joining former Prime Minister Theresa May, who made clear she would not support the legislation as she warned it would “diminish” the UK’s global standing and delivered a withering assessment of its legality and impact.
Following the result, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss tweeted the Bill, which gives ministers powers to override parts of the post-Brexit deal on Northern Ireland, “provides practical solutions to problems caused by the Protocol and protects the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement”.
“While a negotiated outcome remains our preference – the EU must accept changes to the Protocol itself,” she added.
The European Union has launched fresh legal action against the UK in retaliation over the Government’s move.
Speaking out against the changes in the Commons, May said: “The UK’s standing in the world, our ability to convene and encourage others in the defence of our shared values, depends on the respect others have for us as a country, a country that keeps its word, and displays those shared values in its actions.
“As a patriot, I would not want to do anything that would diminish this country in the eyes of the world.
“I have to say to the Government, this Bill is not, in my view, legal in international law, it will not achieve its aims, and it will diminish the standing of the United Kingdom in the eyes of the world, and I cannot support it.”
