LONDON: Nearly 2.3 million people in the U.K. regret voting for Brexit from the European Union (EU) in last week’s historic referendum, a trend which has come to be referred to as “Bregret”, a new survey has said.
According to the ‘Opinium survey’, seven per cent of the people who voted to leave the EU now regretted their choice and may vote for remain instead if they had a choice. When the survey’s findings are projected on to the statistics of the June 23 referendum, it cuts the Leave vote-share by 2.3 million, wiping out its majority and reversing the shock result in favour of Brexit, the survey said.
“The U.K. is just as divided post-referendum as it was pre-referendum with voters split on what the U.K.’s relationship with the EU should be after we leave and what the priority should be in the ensuing negotiations,” Adam Drummond from Opinium Research told The Independent. ‘Mutually exclusive’ “Remain voters want the government to prioritise staying part of the EU’s single market while Leave voters are keen to end free movement between the U.K. and the EU and both priorities are likely to be mutually exclusive,” he said. The survey also found that 3 per cent of ‘Remain’ voters also regretted their choice. More than 4 million people have now signed a petition calling for a second referendum but the government has ruled out another vote on the issue to avoid what outgoing Prime Minister David Cameron termed “neverendum.”