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An increasing number of Britons say the UK has made a mistake with Brexit, according to a Standard analysis of more than 200 polls.
He found that, on average, just under 49 per cent of adults believed it was a mistake, compared with just over 38 per cent who still said it was the right decision and 13 per cent “didn’t know”, according to 11 studies. year.
The average annual gap between those who think it was “wrong” to vote to leave compared to “right” has doubled in 2022 to 10.6 percentage points.
This is almost twice the difference of 5.5 percentage points from 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 surveys that asked whether in In retrospect, people believe that Britain is right or wrong to vote to leave the EU.
The latest figures also compare with the results of the Brexit 52 to 48 referendum in 2016 on Britain’s exit from the European Union.
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The findings come as the government appears to be trying to avoid a public assessment of the economic impact of Brexit so far, after the country voted to leave six years ago.
Brexit Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg recently declined to say whether the government had conducted such studies and, if so, what it had revealed, and suggested other assessments were “hold”.
But Labor MP Hillary Benn, co-founder of the UK’s Trade and Business Committee, said: .
“But a decision has been made and the question now is how to build new and different relations with our European neighbors.
Sarah Olney, a Liberal Democrat business spokeswoman and Richmond MP, said: “The government’s failed trade deals have drowned our businesses in bureaucracy and increased spending on families.
“Ministers must work tirelessly to get our economy back on track.
Former British Brexit negotiator Lord Frost acknowledged that the exit from the EU may have affected exports of goods from the UK by five percent, but believes that “the country’s production continues to improve and this figure may change further as the figures are normalizing. “
He also doubts that leaving the EU will have any “measurable impact on our GDP in one way or another.”
Patrick English, associate director of political and social research at YouGov, stressed that there has been no dramatic change in the country’s view of Brexit over the years.
He said: “Between the first YouGov poll on this issue and today’s figures, there was only a 6-point increase in the percentage of people who think Brexit is a ‘wrong’ decision, and a slightly larger, but still small, reduction. the percentage of people who think it’s “right”.
He added: “Much of the widening gap between the wrong and the right can only be due to the change of generations, with Brexit supporters likely to be older and those who support them much younger.
“The relative stability of attitudes reflects how deeply the Brexit divide has clung to British politics and public opinion, evolving to become much more a political identity than a political preference.
The Treasury Department is largely silent on the impact of Brexit, and the Bank of England has been accused of being reluctant to talk about it so as not to upset the government.
But a recent report by The Resolution Foundation, in collaboration with the London School of Economics, warned that Brexit would hit workers’ real wages by about 470 a year, compared to what it would be, and hurt Britain’s competitiveness.
Another report, by the Center for European Reform, estimates that the United Kingdom was hit with a £ 31bn blow to GDP by Brexit in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Meanwhile, the government’s attempt to effectively destroy parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol removed its first hurdle, with no Tory MP voting against, despite warnings that the plans were illegal.
MEPs voted 295 to 221, a majority of 74, to give a second reading of the bill on the Northern Ireland Protocol, which paves the way for it to be scrutinized in the coming weeks.
Voting lists showed dozens of Conservative MPs abstaining, joining former Prime Minister Theresa May, who has indicated she will not support the law as she warned she would “reduce” the UK’s global position. and gave a tiring assessment of its legitimacy and impact.
Following the result, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss tweeted the bill, which gives ministers the power to repeal parts of the post-Brexit Northern Ireland agreement, “providing practical solutions to the problems caused by the Protocol and defending the Belfast Agreement (Good Friday)”.
“As long as the outcome of the negotiations remains our preference, the EU must accept the changes in the protocol itself,” she added.
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