- A recently released poll found that only 35% of Britons supported Brexit, and 57% wanted to join the European Union.
- Nearly 60% of people who told the European Social Survey that they wanted Britain to be in the EU were much higher than the 48% who supported Remain in 2016.
- Support for EU membership has increased across Europe, according to the survey.
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There has been an increase in support for European Union membership among the British public since the Brexit referendum, a major new poll found.
The European Social Survey, carried out every two years, found that support for the EU had increased across the continent and in Great Britain.
The survey, completed in 2019 and published this week, found that 57% of Britons said they would vote to be within the EU, compared to 50% who said the same in the previous poll, published in 2018.
By contrast, only 35% said they would vote to be outside the EU, compared to 52% of people who voted to leave in 2016. Eight percent of Britons said they would not vote in such a referendum.
The findings were released four years after Britain voted to leave, as the country faces an increasingly bleak economic outlook amid the coronavirus pandemic.
European social survey
The UK is in the Brexit transition period, which means it maintains the same trade and customs rules as it had before leaving the EU.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has insisted that the UK emerge from this transition period in late 2020, regardless of whether new trade deals are being negotiated with the EU within that time.
Rejoining the EU remains a distant prospect for the UK, as neither the Johnson government nor the opposition Labor Party calls for the country to rejoin.
Support for EU membership has increased across Europe
Nicolas Economou / NurPhoto via Getty Images
The poll also found that support for EU membership had increased across the continent, despite some predictions that Brexit would trigger a wave of opposition to the union in other European countries. All surveyed countries saw increased support for EU membership.
There was a 12% increase in support for EU membership in Finland and 11% support for membership in the Czech Republic. In Britain, support for membership has increased by 7% since the previous survey in 2017.
