The polling on this question has shifted dramatically since 2016, and we wanted to put it to readers directly rather than just report the numbers and move on.
Survation’s mega poll of more than 10,000 people, the largest Brexit survey conducted since the original referendum, found 63% would now vote to rejoin the EU against 37% who would stay out. That’s a 26-point margin, representing a 30-point swing from the original 52-48 Leave result in 2016. A separate YouGov poll found two-thirds of Britons believe Brexit has made every major issue they care about worse, from the economy to immigration to trade. Research from More in Common found 81% of likely young voters, those too young to have voted in 2016, would choose to rejoin given the chance, with three in five Gen Z Britons overall backing rejoin. A separate Ipsos poll found half of Britons now want a second referendum altogether, including a quarter of those who originally voted Leave.
That said, public opinion shifting is not the same thing as a clear democratic mandate to act on it. Sir John Major has called for Britain to rejoin the EU single market within five years, describing Brexit as built on “impossible promises.” Michel Barnier, who negotiated Britain’s original exit, has said the technical process of rejoining could happen on a “short” timeline if the political will existed on both sides, and has previously suggested the UK could keep the pound and a Schengen opt-out as part of any future deal. Even the civil servant who led Britain’s original exit negotiations has said Brexit “is not done” and called for a proper rejoin debate.
But no major UK party currently has a manifesto commitment to hold a second referendum. David Lammy refused five times on Sky News to say whether the UK should rejoin the EU, drawing criticism from across the political spectrum. Andy Burnham, the man expected to become prime minister within weeks, has said he wants Britain back in the EU “within his lifetime,” without committing to any specific mechanism, timeline or referendum. Even Volodymyr Zelensky has called on the UK to rejoin the EU, arguing it would strengthen European security alongside Ukraine and Turkey’s own accession hopes.
A Question Time audience member recently made the case directly to camera that Labour should unite around rejoining, arguing the party was “papering over the cracks” by avoiding the issue. The clip went viral precisely because so few frontline politicians have been willing to say the same thing as plainly.
There’s also a meaningful difference between “rejoin the EU” in the abstract and what rejoining would actually involve in practice. Full EU membership would likely mean accepting the euro in the long term, freedom of movement, and the full range of EU regulations, something polling suggests is less popular than the simple “rejoin” question implies. Single market membership, by contrast, which Major and Barnier have both gestured toward as a more realistic interim step, would involve a different and more limited set of trade-offs, potentially including opt-outs on the currency and Schengen.
This is why we’ve included a third option in our poll beyond a simple yes or no. Some readers may feel strongly that Britain should rejoin regardless of process. Others may feel just as strongly that it should never happen. But a significant number of people, based on existing polling, fall into a middle position: supportive of closer ties with Europe in principle, but only if any major change of this scale is put to the public again through a referendum, rather than decided by a single party leader or parliamentary vote alone.
We don’t think there’s an obviously correct answer here, which is exactly why we’re asking rather than telling you what we think. The national polling we’ve cited gives a sense of where the country sits in aggregate, but individual views often diverge from headline poll numbers, and we’re genuinely curious how our own readers see it.
Vote in the poll above, and read the full coverage linked throughout this piece for the detail behind each figure.
20 responses to “POLL: Should we rejoin the EU?”
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Check out the Kinnock clan,also check the unelected overlord self preserving pension setup,me,me,me,take,take,take!!.
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On an entirely selfish basis, of course we should rejoin, we should never have left, but we have to ask what would be the benefit for the EU? Why should they consider readmitting a country that’s always been sniffy and deeply patronising towards it? Not to mention taking on a nation where so many are willing to be bought or hoodwinked by entirely malignant self-serving billionaires hell-bent on becoming trillionaires.
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We should move to a better trade deal with the EU only. The EU needs to reform its self. It was a good idea at its start.. as a trading block. But it got too big. In governing over its members states..and taken away from them there identity. Then have the euro ..the UK was right in not having the Euro.. The other thing thsts needs to be looked at and THE Human rights act. Good idea yet ut over reached its self. The EU today is far too large . Too many office buildings..over staffed.. It does not need to be so big . Take it back to being a trading block. In reform the EU . They cost could be cut by two thirds of what it costs today to member states
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EU has less bureaucrats than Birmingham
Every country is sentimental about its national currency. As indeed we were in 79 but we got over it very quickly
If we do adopt the Euro I would suggest we adopt the same system Spain used to have where prices are listed in bother denominations so price hikes are easy to spot. We should have done this in 79The Euro is a reserve currency. Its madness and economic lunacy to not use the currency of your biggest trading partners.
Big is not always better. But apart from its obvious failings the UNITED states does very well with no internal borders, shared currency, military, judiciary. Despite being part of the federation individual states still proud of their identities.
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First, get back into the custom union as soon as possible…and start negations about rejoining. Second hold the Brexit Traitors to account…
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I think Labour should use their enormous majority to begin accession talks now, and use the “courage on both sides” to try to get some of the benefits of a really significant reset in relations in advance. Maybe we can even begin the “transition period” before signing the treaty.
Then, they should put the formal question in the manifesto, and the first act of business of the next Parliament would be “ratify the treaty”. We would actually rejoin with full effect in the 2nd week of the new Parliament – meanwhile, starting now, we’d be getting ready, preparing for the abolition of the paperwork, fixing any necessary regulatory alignment, encouraging EU students to apply to UK universities, readying business systems, so that the tangible benefits appear instantly on approval.
This also has the political advantage of uniting the progressive left, forcing the Tories off the fence, and getting business to pro-actively and loudly support the only parties that will help us all.
Lastly, we have been offered a rejoin on the old terms (i.e. no requirement on Euro, no Schengen).
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We should never have left. And we should never had had the referendum. I’m pretty much against referendums at the best of times, but surely the issue of our membership of the EU was/is far to complex to be dealt with in this superficial Yes/No way. How many people had anything close to a solid understanding of all the implications of decisions relating to it?
I think we should rejoin for the same reasons that I voted to remain, namely, that the overwhelming majority of people high up in their own various fields – science, medicine, the arts, education, and so on – seemed to believe that our membership of the EU was a good thing as far as their area of experience was concerned.
Needless to say, I do not favour another referendum being held to “validate” our rejoining.-
Vote Leave promised the earth in terms of wealth and growth (‘no downsides’ ‘keep the same benefits’, ‘we hold all the cards’ etc), and people went for it. Now we know, with hard data, the damage Brexit has done to our economy and pur country, and people have changed their minds. We should rejoin ASAP.
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I don’t think we should have left. I also think it was wrong to have a referendum at all. Partly, I just don’t favour referendums, but our membership of the EU is surely a far too complex issue for non-experts to have a worthwhile opinion about.
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We never should have left. The damage inflicted by the Russian assests Johnson and farage should have them both behind bars.
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