POLLING expert Professor Sir John Curtice has said that “pro-Europeans still have work to do if voters are to be persuaded to back a closer relationship” with the European Union.
Keir Starmer has consistently said the UK will not rejoin the EU, noting back in July that it would not do so within his lifetime.
However, research has consistently found voters in favour of rejoining the EU, with data from YouGov released in August showing 59% would vote to go back in a hypothetical new referendum.
The same poll also found support for closer ties between the UK and the EU but did make clear that Labour’s landslide election victory did not give Starmer a mandate to rejoin wholesale.
We also told last month how Scots believe that becoming independent and joining the EU would be better for the country than remaining in the UK, according to analysis by the Scottish Centre for Social Research and polling experts at What Scotland Thinks.
Speaking at an event hosted by the European Movement in Scotland, Curtice said there was “grounds for optimism among those who would like to see a closer relationship between the UK and EU”.
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“The polls consistently suggest a majority would now vote to rejoin the EU. Voters have become doubtful about the impact of Brexit on immigration and the economy.”
He added: “And the UK now has a Labour Government, at least three-quarters of whose vote in July came from those who would vote to rejoin, and which wishes to soften some of the Brexit deal negotiated by the previous Conservative government.”
However, Curtice (below) added that “pro-Europeans still have work to do” if they wish to convince voters to be persuaded of the need for a closer relationship.
“Most leave voters have not changed their minds about Brexit, not least because they still feel it has given Britain more control over its own affairs,” he said.
“Voters are more or less evenly divided on the merits of following EU regulations in order to make it easier to trade with our neighbours versus Britain having the ability to make its own rules and regulations.
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“And continuing concern about immigration is reflected in opposition to the introduction of a youth mobility scheme as proposed by the EU.”
Curtice added: “Despite the doubts that now exist about the wisdom of the decision to leave the EU, the introduction of a softer Brexit will not necessarily prove particularly easy to sell to the British public.”
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