Way back in June 2016, Shropshire voted decisively to leave the EU. Would our county do that now? Probably not according to a new analysis of voter opinion.
Tonight at 11pm will be the third anniversary of Britain leaving the EU. It proves our nation was ill prepared. In Ludlow constituency, an estimated 58% of voters voted leave. A recent survey and analysis suggests that 48% of Ludlow voters think it was wrong or leave the EU, with 37% thinking it was the right thing to do.
The same pattern is repeated across the country, with only one vote leave parliamentary constituency (Boston in Lincolnshire) now have a majority thinking that Britain was right to leave the EU.
In North Shropshire, 46% of voters think Britain was wrong to leave the EU. It’s 53% in Shrewsbury & Atcham.
On a rough average, 48% of people in Shropshire now think leaving the EU was wrong.
New data based on a survey and analysis by Focaldata for UnHerd maps current opinions on leaving the EU by constituency. Published on the third anniversary of the UK leaving the EU, it shows that opinion has shifted since the Brexit referendum. The survey estimates that half of in England, Scotland and Wales think it was wrong to leave the EU (54%) while only a quarter Brexit was the right move (28%).
After the 2017 vote, Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski told the Shropshire Star: “The British people have voted decisively for sovereignty, to take back control, to make Parliament directly accountable to them and it is a very important day.” Bad news Daniel, 53% of your constituency think leaving the EU was wrong and just 31% think it was right.
Moving north to North Shropshire, former MP Owen Paterson said “it is absolutely tremendous” result. Paterson has gone but even in his supposedly true blue constituency, 46% now think leaving was a bad idea and only 37% it was a good idea.
Coming south to Ludlow, where Philip Dunne opposed Brexit, 46% think it was wrong to leave the EU and 39% think it was right.
Check your constituency here. Check how your constituency voted in 2016 here.
Despite the public mood, which has been reflected in surveys and analyses over several months, Rishi Sunak today boasts “we’ve forged a path as an independent nation with confidence” after Brexit. Yet some business people think “Brexit been a complete disaster” and that it has “been a lose-lose situation for us and Europe… The reality of Brexit was it was just a bunch of complete and total lies.” The Telegraph reports that “Brexit is costing the UK’s economy £100bn a year” and the economy is four per cent smaller than it might have been as a result.
The public see the reality, even if Conservative politicians do not. A poll published by Ipsos on Monday found 45% thought Brexit was going worse than they expected:
Regretting leaving the EU is not the same as wanting to rejoin.
But in a poll published by the i last weekend, 49% of those that expressed a view wanted to rejoin the EU and 51% were against. That’s the closest margin yet.
The BMG survey of 1,052 adults for i asked what impact rejoining the EU would have on:
- The economy: 47% positive.
- Trade with non-EU countries: 38% positive.
- Trade with EU countries: 55% positive.
- Standing in the world: 42% positive.
- Cost of living: 40% positive.
- UK influence: 41% positive.
- Cost of living: 40% positive.
- Standing in the world: 42% positive.
- Trade with EU countries: 55% positive.
- Trade with non-EU countries: 38% positive.
Opinion was more divided on other issues.
The tide is turning and the deceit of the Brexiteers is being exposed. It is time for the Conservatives to admit they got it wrong and set out a path to ensure that we have a clear pathway to strengthening relationships with the EU bloc and lowering trade barriers.
Well well, who’d have believed it? Now we live with the consequences.
In 2016, I voted remain. The result went in my view the wrong way. In the general election a year later in 2017, the only party campaigning to overthrow this result were the Lib Dems, for whom I therefore voted – surely buyers’ remorse would kick in? No, they garnered just 7.4% of the votes and 12 seats. The democratic decision was clear, and I accepted the result (losers’ consent and all that). So yes, we can rue the day, but we are where we are – by all means strengthen relationships and lower trading barriers as you say, but let’s not hanker after the impossible (for example, to rejoin the EU would mean acceptance of the Euro – would we vote for that as a nation?). Sir Keir Starmer has made it clear there will be no refighting of the Brexit wars, and he is surely right. Let’s see what the next (surely non Tory) government can do to ameliorate the position within the given of Brexit.