Two-thirds of Britons think Brexit has damaged UK economy: Poll

Almost two in three Britons believe Brexit – United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union in 2016 – has damaged the country’s economy, according to a new poll.

Some 61 percent of voters said leaving the bloc has made Britain’s economy worse, according to the Savanta survey conducted for The Independent daily.

According to the poll, carried out between February 10 and 12, only 13 percent of those surveyed said Brexit has improved the crisis-stricken country’s economic situation.

The poll also revealed that most Britons believe Brexit has compounded the country’s deteriorating food-supply crisis, with a “crippling” shortage of goods in the supermarkets during the cost-of-living crisis.

It points to a rise in negative views on Brexit, as a similar poll in January found that 56 percent believed leaving the EU had made the country’s economy worse.

Meanwhile, 55 percent of respondents said Brexit had worsened the availability of goods, while only 14 percent said it had improved availability.

According to the survey, 47 percent of respondents said Brexit had made their own finances worse, with only 13 percent saying their bank balance had been swelled by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

“This poll shows that there’s a strong perception that Brexit has not gone particularly well,” Savanta director Chris Hopkins was quoted as saying.

“While that may not equate directly to Brexit regret, we see little evidence in the perceptions of both Remainers and Leavers that Brexit has left the UK in a better state.”

According to Savanta, previous surveys showed there was a perception among the public that the Leave campaign had “told more lies” than the Remain campaign, both before and after the referendum in 2016.

“Perhaps it’s this sense of disingenuity that influences perceptions now, with some Leavers feeling that they were perhaps missold Brexit, even though they wouldn’t necessarily reverse their decision if a referendum came round again,” Hopkins added.

The growing regret over Brexit comes amid the deluge of data showing its painful impact on the country’s economy amid the rapidly worsening cost-of-living crisis in European countries.

In December, the Centre for European Reform (CER) found that Brexit had cost the UK a staggering £33bn in lost trade, investment and growth, and estimated that the tax loss from Brexit to be around £40bn.