New data from Best for Britain’s Spring Megapoll shows that the strong desire among voters for closer EU-UK cooperation remains steady with half of all respondents wanting closer ties with the bloc.
Best for Britain’s MRP poll of more than 15,000 people undertaken by Survation found that on average 49.2% of respondents want to see a closer EU-UK relationship compared to current arrangements. The number of people who want closer EU-UK ties is more than three times the number who want to see greater distance (14.8%) and double the number who want to keep the status quo (24%).
Support for rapprochement with Europe was the most popular option in all nations, regions and constituencies in Britain with greatest support in Scotland (56.2%). Even in the constituency of Boston and Skegness, where 74.9% of voters backed leave in the 2016 referendum, a closer relationship is the most popular option.
Among undecided voters across Britain, support for closer ties was similarly strong (43.6%) compared to those who want to see greater distance (11.6%) and no change (22.2%).
Only for people who said they were planning to vote for Reform UK, a mere 8.5% of the electorate, was greater distance the most popular option, with even Tory voters (26.2% of respondents) seeing more sense in a closer relationship (30.7%) than greater distance (19%). Unsurprisingly among voters of all the other major UK political parties, there was a strong majority in favour of closer EU-UK ties ranging from 62% (Labour) to 73% (SNP).
In a blow to the UK’s leading Brexit backing news outlets, closer EU-UK ties is also the most popular option among readers of the Daily Mail, The Sun and The Daily Telegraph.
The Poll
The poll of 15,029 adults and MRP analysis by Survation on behalf of Best for Britain was conducted between 8th March and 22nd March 2024.
What is MRP?
Multilevel regression and poststratification (MRP) is a way of producing estimates of opinion and attitudes for small defined geographic areas. It works by combining information from large national samples (for example tens of thousands of respondents) with ONS and census data. Full explanation is available here.