Many Are Feeling A Sense Of Regrexit - But It's Not Just About Closer European Ties

One in three Conservative voters now believes that Brexit has created more problems than it has solved, according to an Opinium poll for Best for Britain.

- John Rentoul

Best for Britain was founded to try to stop us leaving the EU, and it has now morphed into an internationalist campaign for a closer relationship with the EU; so its purpose in commissioning the research is obvious.

However, Opinium is a reputable and impartial polling company, and its findings are in line with all the other polling on the subject. The majority view of the British public (excluding "don't knows") is that the decision to leave the EU was the wrong one; that Brexit has gone badly - and that we should rejoin at once. Opinion poll findings have to be interpreted carefully. The last one on rejoining, for example, is probably a poor guide to what would actually happen if there were another referendum.

Polls that ask how people would vote in such a referendum find a lower level of support for Rejoin if the question reminds the respondents that rejoining would mean being part of free movement of people throughout the EU, contributing to the EU budget and accepting the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the EU. (And that is without mentioning the euro, because people can argue forever and a day about whether adopting the euro is a "requirement" of EU membership, or whether Britain could just pretend to be intending to join it, as Sweden does.)