More people think Labour is anti-Brexit than Change UK, survey finds

A YouGov survey has found that respondents believe Labour is more anti-Brexit than Change UK. Picture: PA/Joe Giddens / PA/John Stillwell - Credit: PA/Joe Giddens / PA/John Stillwell

A YouGov poll has asked people to say whether various parties are pro-Brexit or anti-Brexit, and some of the results are surprising.

Labour today decide whether or not they will back a 2nd referendum on a Brexit deal. Today we found much public confusion on Labour's Brexit stance:
% of Brits who think Labour is...
Anti-Brexit - 42%
Pro-Brexit - 13%
Neither - 20%
Don't know - 25%https://t.co/AyUw6jm6Lh pic.twitter.com/N3SmEM9AhH
— YouGov (@YouGov) April 30, 2019

In the eyes of the respondents, Labour are seen as more anti-Brexit than Change UK.

Just 38% of respondents said they thought Change UK are anti-Brexit, with 44% of people saying they are unsure.

Labour, on the other hand, were anti-Brexit in the eyes of 42% of respondents.

This is worrying for Change UK, who are founded by MPs who defected – eight of them from Labour – partly in protest of their parties’ stance on Brexit.

At a recent announcement of MEP candidates including Rachel Johnson and Gavin Esler, Change UK interim leader Heidi Allen has claimed the party is ‘the home of the Remain alliance’.

MORE: Rachel Johnson and Gavin Esler among Change UK MEP candidates in EU election launchDespite this, 13% of respondents believe the party is pro-Brexit.

The SNP’s anti-Brexit stance is the clearest, according to the poll, with 65% of respondents perceiving the party as against leaving the EU.

They are followed by the Liberal Democrats who are perceived as anti-Brexit by 53% of respondents.

Despite the party’s longstanding Remainer stance, and its calls to revoke Article 50, 34% of respondents said they didn’t know the Lib Dem stance on leaving the EU and another 5% said they thought the party was pro-Brexit.

The Greens, who also have long objected to Brexit, are perceived as anti-Brexit by only 46% of respondents.

The Conservatives have the most balanced array of perceptions, with 24% of people perceiving them as anti-Brexit, and 37% perceiving them as pro-Brexit.

The party that mystifies most people on the question of the EU is Plaid Cymru, with 60% of people saying they don’t know its Brexit position.

Perhaps most curiously of all, 5% of respondents think UKIP are anti-Brexit.

‘While in the Westminster bubble you may be able to throw a party name at someone and have them spit out their Brexit stance in an instant, many Britons don’t pay that much attention to politics,’ pointed out YouGov data journalist Matthew Smith.

In the case of smaller parties, respondents are clearer on the party stance when they intend to vote for it, however.

Supporters of both Lib Dem and Change UK parties said 86% of the time that they believed the parties are anti-Brexit.