Most Britons now say Brexit was a mistake

Ten years after Britain voted to leave the European Union, public opinion has turned sharply against Brexit, with polls showing a majority now view the decision as a mistake and only a minority still believe it was right.

A YouGov survey conducted this month to mark the anniversary found that 57% of Britons think it was wrong to leave the EU, while 30% say it was the right choice. Al Jazeera reported that the same survey found six in 10 judge Brexit to have been a failure. When voters went to the polls on June 23, 2016, the Leave campaign won with 51.9% of the vote: about 17.4 million people backed leaving, while 16.1 million voted to remain.

“Brexit has been an absolute disaster for the country,” one pro-EU campaigner told France 24, cited by CBS News, on the eve of the anniversary. “Not just economically, but loss of freedom of movement, families being split up.” Another said Brexit had split Britain “down the middle, and nothing good has come of that since.”

The decade since the referendum has been marked by political instability. CBS News reported that Britain has had seven prime ministers in the past 10 years, while Al Jazeera said Keir Starmer’s resignation would make way for the seventh British prime minister in a decade. Both outlets linked the turmoil to the political fallout that began with David Cameron’s resignation after the 2016 vote.

The economic effects remain central to the debate. CBS News reported that leaving the EU has reduced British productivity, imports and exports, citing the Office for Budgetary Responsibility, and said an analysis of government data showed the economy took a 6% hit because of Brexit. Al Jazeera cited a recent Bank of England analysis indicating that the UK economy has shrunk by 6% due to the effects of departure.

“The consequences 10 years on are worse than we feared,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU, said recently.

Supporters of Brexit have not all changed their minds. CBS News reported that two-thirds of those who voted Leave still stand by their original vote, and many argue that successive governments handled the transition poorly rather than blaming Brexit itself.

Nigel Farage, one of the leading architects of Brexit and head of Reform UK, told the BBC that leaving was “absolutely the right thing to do.” He said, “The earthquake that happened 10 years ago today was not accepted by the establishment. And when finally they were pushed into actually getting us to leave the European Union, they then did not implement the wishes of the people.”

Simon Boyd, a steel manufacturer in Dorset who campaigned for Brexit, told the BBC he was “quite disappointed” with how things turned out, but added: “We’ve got to go forwards, embrace Brexit, embrace the opportunities that are there.” Rejoining the EU, he said, would “be akin to getting back on the Titanic on the conditions that you hand over your life vest first.”

Migration remains one of the most divisive legacies. The Leave campaign promised Britain would “take back control” of its borders and curb EU migration. But CBS News reported that amid post-Brexit labor shortages, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson eased restrictions and non-EU migration spiked.

Al Jazeera reported that the referendum also reshaped political discourse around immigration, race and belonging. Tahir Abbas, director of the Centre on Radicalisation, Inclusion and Social Equity at Aston University, said Brexit “mobilised Islamophobia,” citing Farage’s 2016 campaign poster showing large numbers of brown-skinned people crossing Europe. Al Jazeera also linked the post-Brexit political climate to tougher immigration policies, slogans such as “Stop the Boats,” and recent anti-immigration violence in Belfast.

Despite the shift in opinion, another referendum appears unlikely. CBS News reported that more than half of respondents told YouGov they would like Britain to rejoin the EU in some form, and three-fifths of Gen Z Britons told More in Common they wanted a new referendum. But few politicians have shown an appetite to reopen the issue. Andy Burnham said in May: “I also believe the last thing we should do right now is re-run those arguments.”