The latest headlines in your inbox
A new poll has found the majority of Brits want to stay in the EU, just days before the country is set to leave.
The BMG survey for the Independent found that, with Boris Johnson set to take the UK out of the bloc on January 31, voters are 52-48 per cent in favour of Remain.
This is the reverse of the result of the 2016 referendum.
Those polled also believed Brexit would damage the economy, the NHS, the unity of the UK and Britain’s standing in the world.
Twenty-nine per cent said they thought they would be worse off after Brexit, compared to 15 per who thought their would finances improve.
More than four out of 10 want to have a say on rejoining the EU within the next decade, with 18 per wanting a second referendum within a year, 15 per cent in one to five years and nine per cent in six to 10 years.
Ten per cent did not want a new referendum until more than 10 years have passed, while 28 per cent said there should never be another one.
The poll found just 11 per cent of people want to leave the EU without a trade deal at the end of 2020, 39 per cent were keen to secure a deal on future trade relations and 27 per cent wanted membership of the single market.
It comes as Ireland’s deputy premier said the EU will not be rushed into striking a deal on the future relationship with the UK just because Parliament has passed a law to prevent an extension of negotiations.
Simon Coveney said the timetable of the end of 2020 was “very ambitious”.
“When people talk about the future relationship, in the UK in particular, they seem to only talk about a future trade agreement, actually there’s much more to this than that – there’s fishing, there’s aviation, there’s data and so many other things,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
“I know that Prime Minister Johnson has set a very ambitious timetable to get this done. He has even put it into British law, but just because a British parliament decides that British laws say something doesn’t mean that that law applies to the other 27 countries of the European Union.”
“The EU will not be rushed on this just because Britain passes law,” he added.
Meanwhile former international trade secretary Liam Fox claimed there was a “resistance” to Brexit by civil servants.
Speaking to Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday show, he said: “I think there was an institutional resistance.
“Of course, it’s impossible for any of us to know how much of that was an inherent resistance in the civil service and how much they were being egged on by some of my former colleagues who didn’t want Brexit to happen either.”
