YouGov has tracked public opinion on Brexit more or less continuously since August 2016, and the latest shows that 62.2% of the population would either strongly or somewhat support Britain rejoining the EU, against 37.8% who are opposed to it. This is after the 10% of 'don't knows' are omitted.
Paradoxically, when asked if we should rejoin the Customs Union or the Single Market, the number of DKs rises to 30%. Omitting them gives over 70% in favour of both. It also indicates that even after nine years of near-constant debate, around a third of the electorate still doesn't understand the EU.
The survey asked if Brexit has been more of a success or a failure, with 61% believing it has been a failure, while 13% think it's been a success. I'm not sure where that 13% has been living since 2016 or what failure looks like to them.
Asked who they blame for the failure of Brexit, a clear majority (88%) heap it on the Tories, or Boris Johnson (84%), while 67% say it was mostly down to Nigel Farage. Kier Starmer was responsible, according to 28%. The Tory party's unpopularity is understandable, but Farage is around 30% or more in the polls at the moment, with Labour 7-8 points behind, which either says a lot about the voters critical thinking skills or about Farage's oratorical abilities. It's astonishing to me, whichever way you look at it. Why don't people join the dots?
With our First Past The Post (FPTP) election system Farage could easily become PM in three or four years with a clear majority believing we should rejoin the EU. It's not impossible.
The EU polling I posted about on Wednesday and this latest stuff from Yougov is encouraging as far as European unity and integration is concerned. And even more encouraging is the fact that none of the major parties are actively campaigning to rejoin. The polling figures are almost entirely due to the constant flow of bad news being attributed to Brexit.
The latest example comes as The Grocer reports that food exports to the EU fell by 23% between 2017 and 2024, according to figures produced by the trade group Logistics UK. The president of Logistics UK told an audience at an intermodal conference i Birmingham this week that food exports from the UK to Europe fell from 106 million tonnes in 2017 to 82 million tonnes in 2024. Imports also fell, but only by 5% from 111m tonnes to 105m over the same period. We can see who needs whom more in these actual numbers.
And even exports to the US are down as well:
UK exports to the US have now fallen to their lowest level since February 2022. Nor was there better news elsewhere, with UK exports to the EU also falling by £0.6 billion (4.3%) during April londonlovesbusiness.com/new-trade-de...
— BremainInSpain (@bremaininspain.com) 19 June 2025 at 16:56
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Before you get too excited, the Yougov survey shows the population is evenly divided over whether there should be a vote on rejoining in the next five years, but are more in favour of one in 10-25 years. This again is irrational. If you've made a mistake, the quicker it's corrected, the better.
I think if one of the party leaders started to openly campaign for Rejoin to be debated at the next election, public opinion could easily change, and it would have the added benefit of undermining Farage and his Reform UK business.
You can read the detailed Yougov survey results HERE.
