Cover Photo: © Copyright Oast House Archive
Opinion polls continue to show a divide in the country surrounding Brexit.
With some opinion polls showing sharp dissatisfaction when it comes to the Government’s handling of the UK’s impending withdrawal from the European Union, you could expect that public opinion may turn against the Conservatives.
As discussed in a previous column, there are possible reasons why people are happy to tell pollsters they are voting either Labour or Conservative and they have been consistently polling close to 40% each since the last general election, though much of the polling for October suggests the Conservatives may have their noses in front given Labour have led in just the one survey. The only time when it seemed the Conservatives might be suffering as a direct result of Brexit was the fallout of the Chequers agreement, along with the resignations of Boris Johnson and David Davis with UKIP seemingly the beneficiaries. That trend seemingly evaporated very quickly.
But irrespective of their handling of the negotiations, if you were to look at the YouGov tracker as to whether it was a right or wrong decision along with hypothetical referendum polls, there is still a substantial share of the vote that would either vote leave in another referendum, or believe the 2016 decision was the right one.
The logical conclusion would be that despite the Conservative’s handling of it all, people still think that leaving the European Union – regardless of what kind of deal the UK receives if one is indeed struck – as the country edges to its departure point in March 2019 is worth it. A Brexit at all costs.
This maybe because of the kind of populist rhetoric that the Conservatives has adopted since the vote in order to deliver on the vote, that there is a belief they will be able to carry out ‘the will of the people’. If there is to be a substantial shift against the Tories when it comes to Brexit, it might be when the consequences of whatever deal has been struck become apparent, and felt on the ground, and in the pocket, of the ‘average’ voter.
