{"id":901028,"date":"2026-04-17T16:59:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T16:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/901028\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T16:59:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T16:59:26","slug":"voters-want-a-brexit-u-turn-starmer-needs-be-bolder-says-uks-top-pollster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/901028\/","title":{"rendered":"Voters want a Brexit U-turn \u2013 Starmer needs be bolder, says UK\u2019s top pollster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir Keir Starmer must be more vocal about his plans for a softer Brexit policy<\/a> if he is to win back voters lost to the left and stave off the threat of Reform, Britain\u2019s top elections expert has warned.<\/p>\n

Sir John Curtice said that Labour would need to end the \u201cstrategy of silence\u201d that it previously ran on the issue of the EU<\/a> in order to stop pro-European members of the public defecting to the Greens and Liberal Democrats.<\/p>\n

And former Labour leader Neil Kinnock predicted that the UK would eventually have to rejoin the EU to build a new \u201cspecial relationship\u201d with the continent, which can replace damaged ties to the US.<\/p>\n

New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister is facing more political turmoil amid the latest revelations about failings in the process of appointing Peter Mandelson as the British Ambassador to Washington. He has also clashed with Donald Trump over geopolitics, with the US President angry that Starmer did not do more to support his war in Iran.<\/p>\n

More than half of voters back rejoining the EU, poll shows<\/p>\n

A new report by pro-European pressure group Best for Britain, based on polling by independent pollsters YouGov, suggests that one way of restoring his fortunes could be to shift to a more aggressive position on getting closer to the EU.<\/p>\n

Starmer is working on a Brexit \u201creset\u201d, which involves aligning British regulations on some goods with those of Brussels, and working more closely together<\/a> on issues such as energy markets and the ability of young workers to take temporary jobs abroad.<\/p>\n

The Best for Britain research concluded that while this policy is broadly popular, few people are enthusiastic about it, with just one in five voters saying they \u201cstrongly support\u201d the idea. By contrast, 37 per cent would strongly support rejoining the EU, with another 16 per cent mildly supporting the complete reversal of Brexit \u2013 a total of 53 per cent in favour of rejoining \u2013 compared with a total of 32 per cent against.<\/p>\n

Crucially, rejoining is supported by a heavy margin \u2013 at least 80 per cent \u2013 of those who back one of Labour, the Liberal Democrats or the Greens.<\/p>\n

Curtice said that even though polling projections currently show Reform taking a large number of Commons seats off Labour, the way to stop that happening would be for Starmer to reunite left-of-centre voters rather than targeting the right directly.<\/p>\n

He insisted that a more outspoken EU policy \u2013 rather than trying to neutralise the issue, as Labour did before the last general election \u2013 would help achieve that. <\/p>\n

He said: \u201cA strategy of silence, however effective or ineffective you thought it might have been up to and including 2024, certainly does now need to be reevaluated, so far as Labour\u2019s perspective is concerned, given that their opponents are now a) successful and b) are no longer mute in the same way as Labour are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curtice, a professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, added: \u201cIn a sense, even now the Government, in pursuing its strategy for a so-called reset \u2026 has not really been doing a great deal about trying to advocate what it\u2019s doing. It\u2019s not really been trying to sell it. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever it\u2019s trying to do at the end of the day, it will have to try and sell what it\u2019s doing to the British public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neil Kinnock: \u2018Special relationship has to be with Europe\u2019<\/p>\n

Kinnock, the Labour leader between 1983 and 1992, who later spent a decade as an EU commissioner, said that while he backed Starmer\u2019s approach, it would be necessary in the future to be more ambitious and move towards a policy of reversing Brexit entirely, dependent on a democratic vote via a general election or referendum.<\/p>\n

The veteran grandee said: \u201cIn the era of Trump\u2019s tariffs and tantrums, of colossal Chinese advance, of Putin\u2019s war on the west, of an intense, bloody turmoil in the Middle East\u2026 our special relationship has to be with our neighbours in Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a country of the size and significance of the United Kingdom, it cannot be a pick and mix participation, which is all pay and no say. In short, the special relationship has to ultimately mean rejoining the European Union \u2013 or to be more accurate and forward-looking in a changed and changing Europe, it has to mean joining again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Government has insisted that it remains committed to the \u201cred lines\u201d of staying outside the single market and customs union, and not reintroducing freedom of movement between the UK and EU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Keir Starmer must be more vocal about his plans for a softer Brexit policy if he is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,528,3027,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-901028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-labour-party","16":"tag-politics-news","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116421116979983793","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}