LONDON \u2013 U.K. voters are more likely to support openly advocating for the United Kingdom to rejoin the European Union than any partial or \u201chalfway house\u201d deal, a report has found.<\/p>\n
The findings come in response to the planned U.K.-EU reset legislation set to be part of the King\u2019s Speech package set out by the prime minister on May 13.<\/p>\n
The U.K. government will seek to pass a new law that would allow single market rules to be adopted through secondary legislation.<\/p>\n
The Best for Britain report has used recent YouGov polling to establish that the government\u2019s current plan has broad but shallow support, claiming that many voters are \u201cholding their noses\u201d in the hopes of something better.<\/p>\n
Polling suggests 61% of people in the U.K. support building closer ties and establishing deeper alignment with the EU, but just 19% express strong support.<\/p>\n
However, when faced with the options for that reset, becoming a member of the EU is the most popular choice, with 53% approval.<\/p>\n
That is compared with other options such as joining the EU single market, negotiating a U.K.-EU customs union or diverging further from the EU.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s plain to see little appetite exists for the halfway houses of a customs union or single market entry, relative to the resounding and deeply felt support for EU membership,\u201d said Naomi Smith, chief executive of Best for Britain.<\/p>\n
The report also indicated that support for the EU is highest among Labour (83%), Liberal Democrat (84%) and Green Party (82%) supporters.<\/p>\n
Thirty-nine percent of Conservatives also support that policy, along with 18% of Reform U.K. voters, according to the YouGov survey.<\/p>\n
The polling also suggests that parties advocating for EU membership actually increases support from Labour, Lib Dem and Green backers.<\/p>\n
The YouGov data are extrapolated from two surveys of more than 4,000 voters from across the political spectrum, from September 2025 and March 2026.<\/p>\n
Neil Kinnock, former leader of the Labour Party and vice-president of the European Commission, said: \u201cWith an erratic U.S. president playing war games with all our lives, as he launches inflation-spiking conflict across the globe, it is now more obvious than ever that our \u2018special relationship\u2019 has to be with our neighbors in our continent where the U.K. can have the power to share decisions and exert proper influence.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecognition of that rational economic, political and security reality is gaining increasing public support, as this report shows. It is the patriotic course, will bring electoral appeal, and most importantly, it will serve the future and its rising generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s current plan for a reset with Brussels plans the use of the so-called Henry VIII powers to bring forward secondary legislation.<\/p>\n
That is likely to mean new rules being rubber-stamped by members of parliament as parliament can either approve or reject secondary legislation but cannot amend it.<\/p>\n
Critics have said the plan to allow the use of secondary legislation for dynamic alignment with Brussels \u2013 changing the U.K.\u2019s rules to mirror those set in Brussels to make trade easier \u2013 would sideline Westminster.<\/p>\n
Speaking to BBC Radio 5, the prime minister said the changes will come into force only if parliament passes the legislation, adding that a stronger relationship with Europe is in the \u201cU.K.\u2019s best interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe\u2019re in a world where there\u2019s massive conflict, great uncertainty, and I strongly believe that the U.K.\u2019s best interests are in a stronger, closer relationship with Europe, whether that\u2019s defence and security \u2026 energy, inevitably, and also, our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
That position, according to Best for Britain, appears to have broad support across the U.K. voter spectrum, but it may be less clear how best to form those closer ties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2013 U.K. voters are more likely to support openly advocating for the United Kingdom to rejoin the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-537256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}