Only 9% of British voters believe Brexit has gone well - study

Less than one in ten of British voters believe that Brexit has gone well, according to a new study.

However, the research found that the idea of a new referendum is divisive and that a majority of Leave voters would still vote the same way again.

The polling was carried out for the UK in a Changing Europe think tank.

Only 9% of respondents feel that Brexit has gone well and less than a third believe it will ever turn out well.

However, the opinion poll and interviews with focus groups found that this dissatisfaction would not automatically translate into a vote to rejoin the EU.

It found that 48% would vote to rejoin while 32% would vote against.

The rest would either not vote or said they don't know.

Meanwhile, 72% of Leave voters said they would vote the same way again and most of them believe that Brexit may still go well in the future.

Most respondents expressed fatigue with the discussion and wanted to focus on other subjects like the economy.

There was, however, a majority in favour of closer ties with the EU, something supported by 53%.

The Public First study used focus groups among Leave voters in Essex and the East Midlands to try to explain the anomaly of a high dissatisfaction with Brexit but a relatively low desire to rejoin the EU.

It found primarily that people were not interested in Brexit.

The focus groups reported fatigue with the subject and 54% of respondents said they wanted to move on to other subjects like the economy, the health service or crime.

Many said they had little desire to reopen a debate that had been so divisive and that had been voted on already.

More than one person referred to having to lie in the bed they made.

One woman in her 30s said: "Personally, if we were to have another referendum, I'd still vote leave, I’d still stick to exactly as we are now because I wouldn’t want to see our country weakened further by trying to crawl back into the EU, I think that’d just be even more embarrassing than the situation was in the first place."

She is one of the 72% of Leave voters who said they would still vote the same way.

We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

The contradiction can also partly be explained by the fact that 61% of Leave voters believe that Brexit will work out in the future.

Leave voters also pointed to advantages of Brexit such as having control over their own laws and the ability to make trade deals with other countries.

However, even among Leave voters most believe that so far Brexit has not been a success - only 18% of them believe it has gone well.

Most of them - 63% - blame the politicians for not getting a good deal.

While migration had been a big factor in the 2016 referendum only 25% of all respondents felt that the UK has more control over its borders since leaving the EU.

Only 15% believe that legal immigration has decreased and only 8% see a decrease in illegal immigration since Brexit.

Still no matter how large the 'Bregret' there is no big appetite for a second referendum.

And this poll comes after another recent study which found that EU officials were in no mood to reopen Brexit negotiations either.

It seems that the current imperfect arrangements between Ireland and the UK will continue for the foreseeable future.