Voters have endorsed Sir Keir Starmer’s reset with the European Union, despite claims he sacrificed Britain’s fishing industry as the price of closer relations with Brussels.
A YouGov poll for The Times has found that 44 per cent support the prime minister’s decision to give EU fishing boats access to UK waters for 12 years in return for easier access for British food exports to Europe. The move was opposed by 32 per cent of voters, with nearly a quarter saying they didn’t know.
Perhaps surprisingly, the youth mobility scheme, which ministers were concerned about agreeing to, was the most popular part of the deal.
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This was backed by almost two thirds of voters (65 per cent) and only opposed by one in five (21 per cent). Even a third of Reform voters were in favour of it.
Overall just over a third of voters (34 per cent) said the deal was good for Britain, while a quarter (25 per cent) said it was bad, with 17 per saying it was neither good nor bad.
Among those polled, 44 per cent supported the prime minister’s decision to give EU fishing boats access to UK waters for 12 years, while 32 per cent opposed the move
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Asked if the new agreement left the UK too close or too far away from Europe, 25 per cent said too close and 20 per cent too distant, while 24 per cent said it was about right.
While the polling shows that divisions remain over Brexit, nine years after the vote to leave, Downing Street will take heart from the fact that the reset was particularly popular with Labour voters at the last election — many of whom have since abandoned the party.
Of those who backed Labour last July, 58 per cent said it was a good deal compared to just eight per cent who said it was a bad deal. Two thirds (66 per cent) were in favour of giving the EU fishing rights compared to just 13 per cent who were opposed.
They were also broadly positive about Starmer’s role in the negotiations. Sixty per cent of Labour voters said the prime minister had handled the negotiations well while 15 per cent said he handled them badly. Across all voters 36 per cent said he handled them well compared to 38 per cent who said he handled them badly.
Compared to other leaders Starmer also performed relatively well when asked who would be the best leader to handle Britain’s relationship with the European Union.
Nigel Farage is not widely trusted to handle the relationship with the EU
ALAMY
Just under a third (31 per cent) of people said they would trust Starmer “a lot” or a “fair amount” compared to 26 per cent who said the same of Nigel Farage.
Almost a quarter would trust the Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, while only 14 per cent would trust Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader.
Farage and Badenoch also had the highest scores when people were asked who they would not trust to handle the relationship.