Time to reactivate this forum - moving back to EU ?

[EmmaOfNormandy]

For some voters, this might make Labour the only viable choice at the next election if Conservatives and their side of the divide make it a policy point that they would not consider some form of rejoining.

The question is, since Labour are the ones in power now, they are the ones who could stack the deck when it comes to any terms of (re) entry.

I can’t see Europe letting us back in without terms highly unfavourable to us, and an insistence on joining the Euro - I don’t think people would want that. What I fear is incremental curbs on our freedoms to align us with European rules, so that we have the worst of all worlds: rules set by Europe about which we can do nothing and over which we have no say.

Tethered bottle caps rather undermine that argument. A measure the UK had no say in but had to implement.

There are others.

Absolutely rejoin.

Brexit has been an unmitigated disaster.

Loss of GDP for one.
Dodgy food imports for another

Unfortunately people voted for brexit due to wanting to keep other nationalise coming here taking our jobs. No one highlighted what all the other impacts would be eg travel restrictions, living in Spain, changes to passports, students studying abroad etc, visa limits for students coming here

Not gonna happen. We won't rejoin the EU. Too many people don't want to rejoin. The only ones who think Brexit has been an 'unmitigated disaster' are those who didn't want to leave the EU.

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I campaigned and voted for Remain in 2016, and I do think Brexit has been a disaster. However, I'm not convinced rejoining is a good thing unless public opinion has shifted really decisively - like >65% in favour of membership.

If we were to vote to rejoin by a slim majority in a referendum, or Labour won an election on FPTP and took us back in based on a ~33% vote share, it would just start the whole bloody saga all over again, wannabe politicians in the Johnson/Farage mould would start to stoke up divisions, the anti-EU press would go mad and start publishing a load of inaccurate rubbish again. Better to stay out than spend years dithering and arguing in my opinion.

Christ I hope so.

Brexit has done nothing but harm.

Plus the world is so different now than then.

The US is no longer to be relied on and we need to be part of Europe.

Polling various shows massive majority would like to rejoin ie 60 - 70%+.

Have a gander around the internet at those polls.

Labour's problem is the northern "red wall" areas. Scots & "Northern" Irish would support Burnham & together with swing English votes...who knows.

I voted Remain in 2016 & I would definitely vote for any party which committed us to re-joining.

The obvious problem, though, is that we would never get the same deal we walked away from in 2019. The EU would want us to join Schengen & the Euro for starters. Serious compromises would be needed on both sides and all 27 EU member states would have to agree to the terms. The negotiations would be a nightmare.

Yes yes let’s rejoin.

I see no benefits from Brexit at all. Feel free to share any benefits….

Please yes, how anyone can claim it's been anything but a disaster is beyond me

52 - 58% want to rejoin with 70% wanting closer ties.

Various pollsters eg IPSOS, whattheukthinks.

Well that VAT removal from your electricity bill, for example. Wholly down to the UK leaving the EU.

They will but not on the same terms of course

I see the old hubris of the Brits is alive and well. "When we rejoin" oh yes, that will happen more than likely but on EU terms not British assumptions.

For a start the EU will not incentivise countries to leave and then have the ability to rejoin when they get fed up when things don't work out as planned. Think about that one.

I have no doubt that EU would welcome Britain back, but not in the format of the pre Brexit days. Maybe to start with an "associate" membership like Canada based on trade. Then a customs union, and maybe a Norway style EEA membership. In about 20 years time full membership if that's of benefit. The euro will be mandatory for rejoining in any format as a quid pro quo, even though Norway still uses kroner.

The EU would have to be significantly out performing the UK before the debate could begin. And they can’t even do that with the UK being run by clowns and incompetents. We will not rejoin. Burnham is playing to the crowds, but knows there is no appetite amongst the majority of Brits actually living in Britain to rejoin the political bloc.

Only ones excited are Brits living in the EU, Macron, Sanchez, Polish plumbers and potential Romanian Big Issue sellers.

Agreed and I’d like nothing better than to rejoin.

Yes, 49% of the population at the time of the referendum and likely far more than that now that people have seen and truly understood the real consequences of what they voted for 🙄

Looking backwards in time does not help. Whilst remain supporters cling to polls which report that more people think leaving was a bad idea, they don’t look at the numbers regards a rejoin.

Last poll I remember was YouGov 9 June 2026. It recorded that 31% thought they would be better off if UK rejoined the EU. Not a huge number I would say.

You remembered wrong

This is what YouGov said om 9 June 2026

A decade on, just 30% of Britons believe that the UK was right to vote to leave the EU, while a clear majority (57%) now think that Britain made the wrong decision in June 2016

Yesterday
https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/54567-how-strong-is-uk-support-for-rejoining-the-european-union

@TopPocketFind

Read more carefully the link you posted. It says;

This is an occasional tracker run at irregular intervals. This page was most recently updated on 30 September 2026, using data from 24-25 September 2026.

ie, it is based in two days of data. It goes on to say:

For a more detailed look at attitudes to Brexit 10 years on from the EU referendum, read our article:

yougov.com/en-gb/articles/54925-what-do-britons-think-of-brexit-10-years-since-the-referendum

The 9 June 2026 article recorded the following:

• 57% of Britons think the UK was wrong to vote to leave the EU, including 23% of Leave voters

• Six in ten Britons think Brexit has been a failure, with the Conservatives and Boris Johnson seen as most responsible for it not being a success

• While 55% of Britons say they support the UK rejoining the EU, this falls to just 35% if the UK had to rejoin without its prior opt-outs, with 43% opposed

• 59% of Britons support a closer relationship with the EU but without joining the EU, single market or customs union, the only relationship backed by a majority of Remainers and Leavers

• Britons expect that rejoining the EU would have benefits to the UK economy, but just 31% feel it would improve their household finances

So, whilst it is recorded that more people think that leaving the EU was not a good idea, it can’t be inferred that the same number want to rejoin. The text highlighted in, bold, italics and underlined suggests the majority is not in favour of a rejoin. The last bullet point being the most significant of all I would say.

um so far the one benefit is not vat on my electricity bill…….

anymore anymore ?

This is what we have now since Brexit, at least in my industry (financial services).

We used to be part of drafting the rules, and could (and did!) make them highly favourable to London eg. being the centre of euro clearing even though we weren't in the euro, being a de facto unified capital market for the bloc even though (again), not in the euro.

Now we are rule-takers, but have no choice but to comply as it's our biggest, nearest trading partner and we have too many intertwined financing arrangements to break. So we have no choice but to comply with rules we no longer write or have any influence over and which are increasingly unfavourable to us.

@Xiaoxiong

As per the ONS, UK services industry has grown significantly since Brexit.

Good of you to quote the full survey, you were very selective with your first post.