Brexit survey: Fife support for Europe

A new Brexit survey shows 64 per cent of Fife Today readers – the website of the Fife Free Press Group of newspapers – believe Britain will be better off economically inside Europe.

And 67 per cent said Britain should continue to be part of the single European market.

There was also a strong message to Prime Minister Theresa May with a significant number saying they weren’t happy with the Brexit talks so far as the Government seeks to extricate the country from Europe and the Single Market.

The survey was one of the first to get the views of Fifers as the Government continues to negotiate the UK’s departure from Europe following last year’s referendum.

The figures show a split between those who voted Leave and those who voted Remain in the referendum.

Among Leave voters, just 12 per cent think Britain is better off economically in Europe, while a quarter of these voters (25 per cent) think we should continue to be part of the Single Market.

Remain voters are, unsurprisingly, much more likely to think continuing close ties with Europe is a good idea, with 87 per cent saying Britain is better off economically inside Europe and 85% saying we should continue to be part of the Single Market.

More than four-fifths of those surveyed on the site (72 per cent ) said they were not happy with the status of Brexit negotiations at the moment, with just one in nine (11 per cent ) saying they were happy - and the rest weren’t sure.

Regardless of how those surveyed voted in the referendum, they were more likely to be unhappy than happy with the way negotiations are going.

Among those who said they voted Leave, 57 per cent are unhappy with the status of negotiations compared to 23 per cent who were happy.

Four-fifths of those who voted Remain (79 per cent) said they were unhappy, compared to five per cent who said they were happy.

However, most of those surveyed said they would still stick with how they voted - 72 per cent of Leave voters and 92 per cent of Remain voters. Leave voters were more likely to say they would not vote in the same way now, with one in 5 Leave voters saying they’d act differently (20 per cent) compared to one in 28 Remain voters (four per cent).

The study, run in partnership with Google Surveys, was completed online by 500 people who visited our website.