Brexit Buyers' Remorse? Over 50% Brits Regret Voting Leave, Poll Shows

Brits have been asked if they think Brexit was a good (or a bad) move – and the highest number of people to date now believe it was a mistake.

To recap, the 2016 EU referendum saw the UK split almost completely down the middle with 48.11% voting to Remain and 51.89% voting to Leave.

While it was clear the UK wanted to leave the Union, the tight margin caused years of tension in parliament about what kind of Brexit we should do and how to negotiate with the EU.

We finally started the withdrawal process on Friday January 31 in 2020, which wasn’t finalised until the end of the year.

That means the UK has effectively had less than two years of life outside of the trading bloc.

And according to this new YouGov poll, only 32% of people now think it was right to vote to leave – compared to 56% who think it was wrong.

According to the polling website, one in five who voted for Brexit now think it was the wrong decision.

Nine in 10 Remain voters still believe the UK was wrong to leave the EU.

YouGov noted that it has regularly asked the public about Brexit and up until 2017 general election, more people believed it was the right decision.

“Since then, with the exception of very brief periods in April 2020 and April 2021, public opinion has swung in the other direction and the latest results show the gap is at its largest yet, with those who think it was wrong to leave 24 points ahead of people saying it was right,” YouGov explained.

Earlier this month, former environment secretary, George Eustice, said the post-Brexit trade deal with Australia was not “actually a very good deal”.

The Brexit-backing chief executive of Next, Simon Wolfson, has also called for the government to let more foreign workers into the country claiming that this is not “the Brexit I wanted”.

Swati Dhingra, a Bank of England official, also told MPs on Wednesday that real wages are lower in the UK because of the referendum six years ago.

She also said Brexit had added 6 per cent to UK food prices, as inflation hit a 41-year high.