Bregret: Leave voters blame Brexit going badly on failure of UK politicians as rejoin support increases

Unhappy Leave voters blame Brexit going badly on UK politicians, like Boris Johnson and Theresa May, for not getting a good deal, researchers say.

However, only 16% of Brexit voters would now vote to rejoin - despite more than half saying leaving the EU has either not turned out well or it’s turned out badly or very badly. This comes from a survey and series of focus groups in May and June carried out by UK in a Changing Europe and the consultancy Public First. It found people associate travel delays, increases in the cost of living and staff vacancies in health and social care to “some extent with Brexit”.

A new poll shows that support for rejoin has reached its joint-highest level over the last year. According to WeThink, it’s reached 63% while the figure of those who want to stay out of the EU is at 37% - those who don’t know have been excluded.

However Seb Wride, director at Public First who contributed the Brexit regret research, said it would be a mistake for political parties to read too much into support for rejoin. He told NationalWorld: “It’s a mistake to read the current lead in polls that pro-Remain sentiment has over pro-Leave as evidence parties should be campaigning for rejoin. 

“A majority of Leave voters believe that Brexit will work out in the long-run, and are more likely to think that Brexit was bungled than doomed to fail. Calling for a new referendum would be a risk for any of the parties, opening them up to all sorts of arguments about the concessions the UK would need to make to the EU, ignoring the key issues at the moment, and adding further fuel to the view that politicians these days cannot be trusted to deliver.”

The Exploring Bregret research found that “most Leave voters do not regret their vote”. This was backed up in the focus groups, with a female voter, in her 30s, from Thurrock, Essex, saying: “So, I don’t regret it, but I do wish that we had had stronger people representing us to make the deals a bit more and not cave in so quickly.” A male voter in his 60s, also from Thurrock, said: “Do I regret it? No, we’ve started on this journey, let’s finish the journey.”

Leave voters clearly blame Brexit going badly on politicians. Almost half say there was a way politicians could have made it work, but “they did not even try”. Almost two-thirds of Leave voters who think the EU exit has gone badly say UK politicians were ineffective and failed to get a good deal, while 50% say the UK gave in too much to EU demands.

A female voter in her 50s, from Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, told researchers: “David Cameron went away the minute the results came back. Theresa May was always anti-Brexit, but tried to do her best with it, but didn’t really get very far. Boris was Boris.”

While a similar-aged woman from Thurrock added: “[Brexit has] changed the way I vote because I don’t trust any of them [politicians], I don’t believe a word.”

However the report found that “by far the dominant feeling among former Leave voters- even  those unhappy with the course of Brexit- is ambivalence”. The researchers said that “most people do not appear to have given the referendum and its aftermath much thought at all”.