2026 has begun much as 2025 ended, with bleak polling that confirms Britain’s deep and unresolved disillusionment with Brexit, a frustration now shared across the European Union.
2026 has begun much as 2025 ended, with bleak polling that confirms Britain’s deep and unresolved disillusionment with Brexit, a frustration now shared across the European Union.
A new YouGov poll across six European countries shows that Britons are now more likely to back EU membership than voters in France or Italy. 50 percent of UK voters say they would vote to rejoin the European Union if a referendum were held today, compared with 45 percent in France and 46 percent in Italy.
Only 31 percent of Britons say they would vote to stay outside the EU, a sharp fall from the 52 percent who backed Leave in the 2016 referendum. Comparable figures in France and Italy stand at 30 percent and 28 percent respectively.
Support for EU membership is even stronger elsewhere on the continent. In Denmark, Spain and Germany, clear majorities favour remaining in the EU, with 75 percent of Danes, 66 percent of Spaniards and 62 percent of Germans expressing their desire to stay in the Bloc. Just 14 percent of Danes, 13 percent of Spaniards and 20 percent of Germans would vote to leave.
A second major poll conducted by Yonder Data Solutions for FGS Global, surveying 20,000 people across 27 leading democracies, including Europe and the United States, uncovered equally dismal findings related to Brexit.
The study found that Britons are the most pessimistic about their country’s future of any nation surveyed, and that Brexit is widely seen as having failed on its central promises.
Nearly three-quarters of British voters believe the UK now has less, not more, control over its affairs than before Brexit. Just 15 percent think the country has lived up to the slogan to “take back control,” championed by figures such as Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.
Two in three voters say Brexit has damaged the economy, while only 22 percent believe it has had a positive economic impact. Far from restoring sovereignty or prosperity, Brexit is increasingly viewed as having diminished both.
The sense of regret is not confined to Britain. Across the EU, voters also believe Brexit has made things worse. Fewer than one in five Europeans think the EU is better off without the UK, while half say it is not.
A clear majority of European voters, 66 percent, would like Britain to rejoin the EU, compared with just 16 percent who oppose its return. 59 percent say Brexit has demonstrated that leaving the EU is a mistake, while only 24 percent disagree.
Taken together, these polls paint a stark picture that Brexit has satisfied neither its British advocates nor its European critics. Instead, it has left the UK more pessimistic, more isolated, and more doubtful about its own future, while strengthening support for EU membership on both sides of the Channel.
As the tenth anniversary of the referendum approaches, the data is likely to add pressure on Keir Starmer to actively rebuild Britain’s relationship with the EU.
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