The numbers that show how support for reversing Brexit is creeping up

The proportion of Britons who back returning to the EU has risen to 48 per cent, with rejoiners now holding a 13-point lead over the 35 per cent who think we should stay out. It comes after Andy Burnham reignited the Brexit debate by putting a closer relationship to the EU at the heart of his premiership, with the Prime Minister leaving open the possibility that he could campaign to reverse the referendum entirely with a full return to the bloc.

Polling by BMG for The i Paper shows that support for rejoining has increased three percentage points to 48 per cent since last month, with support for staying out dropping by three points to 35 per cent. Seventeen per cent meanwhile answered “don’t know” when asked whether the UK should join the EU or stay out. The 13-point lead for rejoin matches a figure achieved in April and is second only to the record 14-point lead recorded by BMG in March, with the pollster tracking the question since May 2023.

Margin of rejoin’s lead fluctuates but becoming more consistent The margin of the lead held by the rejoin group has fluctuated over the polling series, but in 2026 it has been much wider much more often, suggesting that support has moved this year in the direction of those who want to see Britain return to the EU fold. Six of the 10 polls by BMG this year have had the rejoin side ahead by 12 points or more, whereas previously this only happened once, in May 2023.

Throughout 2024 and 2025 the lead was usually between about five and nine points. Robert Struthers, head of public perceptions at BMG, said this trend suggested support for rejoining was strengthening. According to BMG, most of the lead is accounted for by people who either did not vote in the 2016 referendum, or were too young to do so. Leave voters were also typically older than Remain voters in 2016, so deaths over the last decade have disproportionately affected the Leave base, changing the composition of the electorate.

Labour also enjoys a small lead over its rivals on which party is most trusted to handle the EU and Brexit, with 23 per cent backing it, cmpared to 18 per cent Reform UK, 13 per cent for Conservatives and 7 per cent for the Liberal Democrats. ‘Brexit has done more harm than good’ The increase in support for the rejoin side may partly reflect the case Burnham has been making to voters on the need for closer links with Europe. In his speech at Labour’s conference last month, the Prime Minister claimed that “Brexit has done more harm than good” and that he could not say “truthfully that where we are is good enough”.

He has said that he will use the opportunity around the upcoming UK-EU summit in Brussels on 20 November to set out “options” for “Britain’s long-term relationship with our European partners”. The growth in public support for rejoining may encourage him to push for a more radical option, such as full return. However, the Government’s position is still shrouded in considerable uncertainty. Last week, the Prime Minister told journalists that he would not allow the UK to rejoin the EU’s freedom of movement regime – a condition for membership of the single market or fully rejoining – without a referendum.

Farage prepared to fight back When asked directly by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday if he would rule out a second referendum, the Prime Minister pointedly refused to do so. However, a No 10 spokesperson subsequently played down his remarks by saying the Prime Minister was not proposing a return to freedom of movement, or any particular option at this stage. A big unknown, however, is how opinions would alter in the teeth of a full-blown campaign over rejoining, or joining the single market or a customs union.

Reform leader Nigel Farage said last week he had already had talks to “reactivate” the Leave campaign. “We’ve not been campaigning much on Brexit issues because the general mood of the public is ‘that was then, we don’t want to go back to those arguments and that division within our family’ and all the rest of it,” he told The Daily Telegraph . “He added: “But clearly, if Burnham wants a fight on this, we’ll give him a fight on this.” Burnham will also have to contend with splits in his Cabinet and in the wider Parliamentary Labour Party on Europe .

Cabinet ministers like the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, are understood to have reservations about freedom of movement adding to net migration, while some Labour MPs in Leave-voting “ Red Wall ” seats in the Midlands and North of England are also concerned about reopening the wounds of the Brexit years. BMG polled 1,529 adults in Great Britain on 28 and 29 October.