Support for different EU trading relationships in the UK 2023

Over seven years since the Brexit referendum of 2016, Britons are still divided on what they think their relationship with Europe should be. Approximately 31 percent of voters would vote to rejoin the EU, the most popular option, while 30 percent of voters like to increase the trading relationship with the EU without joining the single market. While eleven percent of people wanted to only join the single market, just ten percent were happy with the current relationship, and nine percent wanted to reduce the UK's ties with the EU even further. 

Most voters now regret Brexit

Despite people in the UK struggling to agree on what the UK/EU relationship should look like, a growing majority have started to regret Brexit. When asked if they thought Brexit was the wrong decision, in April 2021, 46 percent of Britons thought it was the right decision, compared with 43 percent who thought it was the wrong decision. As of January 2025, the share of people who thought Brexit was the wrong decision had increased to 55 percent, while the share who thought it was the correct decision had fallen to just 30 percent.

Britons see few Brexit benefits in 2025

According to a poll regarding the impact of Brexit conducted at the start of 2025, 31 percent of people in Great Britain thought that Brexit had a positive impact on the ability of the country to make its own laws. Most of the impacts of Brexit were, however, seen to be negative, especially in economic terms. Of those surveyed, 67 percent thought that Brexit had a negative impact on the cost of living, with a further 65 believing it had a negative impact on the economy in general. Even among issues important to leave voters before the referendum, such as immigration, Brexit was generally seen to have had a detrimental impact, with just six percent of people thinking Brexit had being positive in this respect.