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New poll shows Wales ‘not willing to pay’ for Brexit

13 Oct 2017 2 minute read

More than three-quarters of people in Wales have stated they would not be willing to lose any money at all in order for the UK to leave the European Union.

The figures were released today as part of a poll commissioned by Wales For Europe and carried out by YouGov.

They claim that the average family is already paying £11 a month more in food prices alone than at the start of the year, as a result of the fall in the pound’s worth since the Brexit vote.

The poll published today shows that 76% of respondents would not be willing to lose a penny as a result of Brexit.

Among respondents who voted Leave in the 2016 referendum, 55% were unwilling to forgo any money (including income, taxes and prices).

Fewer than one in five people would be willing to sacrifice between £10 and £50 a month.

And only 6% would be prepared to lose more than £100 a month – all of them Leave voters in June 2016.

People aged between 25 and 49 years are most resistant to shouldering any cost, with 83% unwilling to surrender any money at all, compared with 64% of those aged 65 plus.

Helen Birtwhistle, Director of Wales For Europe, said: “These results demonstrate that the commitment of Leave voters to Brexit is not deep, and may well be changing as the full economic effects of Brexit become clearer.

“As the cost of living rises for families in Wales, we are all feeling the pinch. At the same time, the confusion over next steps in the Brexit process, combined with a growing realisation of the EU membership benefits Wales stands to lose, mean that people are reassessing their commitment to Brexit.

“These poll figures warn us that many Welsh people who backed Brexit could feel intensely disillusioned in the coming months as the cost mounts.”

Mishandling

The figures came as another poll showed that support for Brexit across the UK is at its lowest ever.

The YouGov poll for the Times found that just 42% of voters now think Britain was right to back Brexit, with 47% saying it was wrong.

Seven percent of Leave voters said they were wrong to back Brexit with a further 7% saying they don’t know.

44% said Brexit will make Britain worse off compared to just 23% who said Britain will be better off.

64% said May’s government was mishandling talks with just 21% saying they are going well.


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74 Comments
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Gareth
Gareth
6 years ago

So Wales wants Brexit but doesn’t want to pay for it.

Margaret Hall
Margaret Hall
6 years ago
Reply to  Gareth

Well, they’d been told that Brexit would lead to a wonderful future where we could strike new trade deals with the rest of the world and as we wouldn’t have to pay for EU membership, we’d have £350 million for the NHS. No one mentioned that the economy would suffer, businesses would re-locate to Ireland and the continent and the City of London would lose a lot of its business. Oh, wait! The Remain campaign DID mention it, but it was just dismissed as “project fear”.

Dafydd Ap Gwilym
6 years ago
Reply to  Margaret Hall

Brilliant Margaret! What you wrote should be on a banner for the hard of learning to gaze at! X

Dafydd Ap Gwilym
6 years ago
Reply to  Gareth

Gareth, Wales needs Independence! That is basically all, this is about, an expression of suddenly beginning to see through the fog of mental enslavement and reaching out into the air, hoping …

Roy Smith
Roy Smith
6 years ago

If you have independence you will not be allowed to stay in the EU, look at what they are saying about Catalonia. So some more non joined up thinking here by the look of it.

Lisa James
Lisa James
6 years ago

Dafydd, fantastic. Have independence but survive on your own taxation and revenue. Don’t be reliant on England to fund it.

ChrisB
ChrisB
6 years ago
Reply to  Lisa James

If Wales defined its own economic model tailored towards itself and not the extractive model as is currently used then we wouldn’t need external assistance

kim erswell
kim erswell
6 years ago

You.Gov polls are biased/rigged. My conversation with friends in Cymru is that they still want out. Believing, that Remainer, Theresa May and most of her government and parliament in general have no true commitment to democracy. Many might be apathetic, throughout Britain, but there are many of us who – if we don’t see delivery – will have a large say in what happens next…Basically, the gloves will be off – simple as.

jh1950
jh1950
6 years ago
Reply to  kim erswell

Kim if what you say comes about it could lead to a terrifying future for the UK, but the non-EU future is equally bleak for most of the population of Wales. I am more convinced than ever that Wales should take back control of our laws, borders, immigration policy, taxes and the rest by becoming a proud and independent country once more.

Free us from the idiots in Westminster.

kim erswell
kim erswell
6 years ago
Reply to  jh1950

“Free us from the idiots in Westminster…” Please, God!

Dafydd Ap Gwilym
6 years ago
Reply to  kim erswell

Praying with ya Kim!

David harper
David harper
6 years ago
Reply to  jh1950

Does that include Aneurin Bevan, Jim Callaghan, Michael Foot, David Lloyd George, Peter Hain, Keir Hardie, Henry VIII, Michael Heseltine, Michael Howard, Geoffrey Howe,Roy Jenkins, Neil Kinnock, Ramsay MacDonald, and all those other Welsh politicians who have graced Westminster.

Lisa James
Lisa James
6 years ago
Reply to  jh1950

Yes please do. And then north Wales will want to be separate from the englishies down south and then Carmarthenshire (or is it little England) will be kicked out for not being Welsh enough, as will Monmouthshire. And then Powys will be landlocked and won’t know where on earth it stands as it hasn’t even got a secondary Welsh language school, and before long we’ll be back in the feudalism that existed how many years ago? That’s progress for you.
Just saying!

brighty
brighty
6 years ago
Reply to  kim erswell

Polls that claim some Leavers now want to remain are rigged, but your conversation with your Leave friends is truly representative of Wales. Conspiracy theory and anecdote-alism in one reply. Brexit Bingo in one, explains why a lot of those surveyed originally voted leave – claim what you don’t believe in is fake/rigged, assume your personal experience and belief is a widespread fact.

kim erswell
kim erswell
6 years ago
Reply to  brighty

Just a simple look at YouGov’s prediction over Brexit show’s they were the opposite to reality. Same with their prediction that Trump would fail to win the US election battlefield states.

Radek Piskorski
Radek Piskorski
6 years ago
Reply to  kim erswell

They got the last election right. They were one of the only ones.

David Lewis
David Lewis
6 years ago
Reply to  kim erswell

Well said Kim!!

Dafydd Ap Gwilym
6 years ago
Reply to  brighty

Deep!

Rob
Rob
6 years ago
Reply to  kim erswell

Why would YouGov rig their own polls, Kim?

kim erswell
kim erswell
6 years ago
Reply to  Rob

YouGov are a private limited company with shareholders…Their reason for being is profit.

Rob
Rob
6 years ago
Reply to  kim erswell

If I got stuff wrong at work would get the sack and there would be no profit. How does YouGov make a profit by getting stuff wrong?

kim erswell
kim erswell
6 years ago
Reply to  Rob

It makes profit by giving the “customer” the result they want: in order that the customer gets the result that increases their poll numbers or strenghens the customers agenda. Obviously the questions are slewed for a positive outcome for the person who pays. If Brexiters called a poll – the pollsters will tailor questions that suit, Leave. It’s buissness.

Rob
Rob
6 years ago
Reply to  kim erswell

90% of YouGov’s business is market research and analysis outside of politics. Deliberately getting stuff wrong on its highest profile surveys would be commercial suicide. It’s just not credible. And where are the whistle-blowers? Where is the statistician that got sacked for getting pissed at lunchtime who can now spill the beans about YouGov and its bent polls? There isn’t one and never will be.

Dafydd Ap Gwilym
6 years ago
Reply to  Rob

Kim got there before me so, what Kim said!

leigh richards
6 years ago
Reply to  Rob

YouGov dont ‘rig’ their polls rob – that’s just a characteristically crude smear from a leaver and supporter of the british far right. As regards YouGov’s polling track record their prediction of the UK general election result was the most accurate of all polling companies https://yougov.co.uk/news/2017/06/14/how-we-correctly-called-hung-parliament/

kim erswell
kim erswell
6 years ago
Reply to  leigh richards

YouGov, are hardly going to tell you their not the most accurate when you source directly from their own website…LOL! No private company would do that.

Angharad
6 years ago
Reply to  kim erswell

Except that those of us who are poll watchers knew that YouGov and Survation were the only ones to be consistently closest to the right answer in the final run-up. They got it right. The others did not. Historic polling record is still there to be observed. So don’t try to change history because it doesn’t fit your argument.
People who know their history will just stop taking you seriously with anything. They also probably didn’t vote Brexit.

jh1950
jh1950
6 years ago
Reply to  Angharad

Angharad it’s “they’re” or “they are” and not “their”. Yougov is a private company and has nothing to do with any government.

jh1950
jh1950
6 years ago
Reply to  Angharad

Oh dearie me, you are obviously not a true democrat (like most Brexshitiers) in that you seem not to welcome views and opinions of Open Britain contributors and supporters.

That in a nutshell is the stance of all Brexshitiers.

kim erswell
kim erswell
6 years ago
Reply to  Angharad

Also, like yourself I watch polls too. The historic fact is, YouGov did call Brexit and Trump wrong; with Brexit calling it 52% to 48% for Remain. https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/06/23/yougov-day-poll/..
Maybe I’m am being pompous but I do take myself seriously, very much so…I have a sense of humour too something the left could learn from.

tonyspencer4
6 years ago
Reply to  kim erswell

Well at least you got a say, some of us were denied a vote. Completely undemocratic.

Mark
Mark
6 years ago
Reply to  kim erswell

And if you asked my friends they’d say leave voters should be hunted with dogs. So I guess the truth is somewhere in between, maybe somewhere like a Yougov survey that polls a large, statistically representative sample of the population.

The War on Brexit is a War on Democracy
The War on Brexit is a War on Democracy
6 years ago

The current debt-based money system controls people through debt and a false scarcity. It is run by a oligarchy of bankers. Our modern debt-slavery is aptly called neo-feudalism. The essential difference from old feudalism is that most of us no longer have access to land and self-sustenance. The money system is anything but democratic or just – or even good economics for that matter. It a crooked accounting system that facilitates wealth extraction by the billions to those who contribute nothing to our economy except misery. On top of that, it’s a Ponzi scheme rapidly heading to another global meltdown… Read more »

Truth may hurt but that is no reason to ban it
Truth may hurt but that is no reason to ban it
6 years ago

This comment “is awaiting moderation” despite other comments being pasted. There is nothing libellous or hateful, or xenophobic in it it. Just economic facts. Are some economic facts too sensitive to publish?

jh1950
jh1950
6 years ago

I am continually confounded and dumbfounded by the Welsh attitude to the EU, it is as if some of my fellow countrymen and women are living in a fantasy world and have swallowed hook, line and sinker the lies that were maliciously repeated ad nauseum by mendacious politicians and millionaire businessmen, not to mention that evil editor of the Daily Mail. Make a commitment to a club to which you belong and you are honour bound to fulfil that commitment. Wales is one of the poorest regions in the EU and has benefitted from its grants and projects, I can… Read more »

Dafydd Ap Gwilym
6 years ago
Reply to  jh1950

BOOM TISH! Don’t forget the rest of the British press!

kim erswell
kim erswell
6 years ago

You said it before me…Like the IA/IE Cymru pic too.

Why we voted Leave
Why we voted Leave
6 years ago
Reply to  jh1950

“Wales is one of the poorest regions in the EU and has benefited from its grants and projects”

That’s partly why the poorest regions in Wales, the Valleys, voted overwhelmingly Leave. We haven’t benefited. The EU is impoverishing its outlying member nations, not enriching them. The facts and statistics speak for themselves.

Edeyrn
Edeyrn
6 years ago

Wales was forced into poverty long before the EU cabal came along

John Young
John Young
6 years ago
Reply to  jh1950

‘Wales will again be forgotten and neglected by England and its Little Englander mentality’.

Correct. And why Wales needs Independence.

Melindwr
Melindwr
6 years ago

Much incautious use of the word “many” there, Kim erswell. In these uncertain months it’s becoming more and more difficult to predict just who the “many” are and what it is they really want.

Gordon Murray
Gordon Murray
6 years ago

How do you fathom the mindset of (&Wales) to the EU that is actively funding and looking after your communities when it is England that has screwed you over for centuries and convinced the Cymry that you are too wee too poor and too stupid to survive without their philanthropy, that served nobody in Wales.
All the centuries of coal steel slate and Welsh knowhow keeping England, or rather the English landed gentry who never did an honest days work in their lives, in the manner to which they feel entitled, and what have the Welsh ever got in return?

UKexit nexit?
UKexit nexit?
6 years ago
Reply to  Gordon Murray

That is so true. We need to follow up Brexit with a Welsh UKexit!

Red Dragon Jim
Red Dragon Jim
6 years ago
Reply to  UKexit nexit?

Just doesn’t work for me. Wales outside the EU will be crap. Wexit outside UK and EU loses over half the existing support for Welsh independence.

jh1950
jh1950
6 years ago
Reply to  Gordon Murray

Gordon you are so right, every day I grow angrier at the deluded Brexshitiers and those who excuse and accept the incompetance of the UK government. Indpendence now.

John Young
John Young
6 years ago
Reply to  Gordon Murray

Very well said Gordon.

Imagine if the profits from all those coal, steel, slate etc industries had been invested in the actual country they came from. Instead of being siphoned off by shysters who cared nothing for Wales.

M
M
6 years ago
Reply to  John Young

What is happening to all this money generated from wind power!

M
M
6 years ago
Reply to  M

And solar farms.

leigh richards
6 years ago

People in wales may not be willing to pay for brexit but the grim reality is that we in wales certainly will pay for brexit – and the price will be a very high one indeed. With two thirds of welsh exports going to the single market and tens of thousands of jobs in wales reliant on this trade the hard brexit which now looks increasingly likely will be a disaster for the welsh economy. And of course we also now know promises made by leave campaigners like boris johnson and nigel farage that powers would be repatriated to wales… Read more »

kim erswell
kim erswell
6 years ago

Just been informed that the commisioners of the poll, Wales for Europe, are a partner organisation of Open Britain. Many of the people involved are the “usual suspects” – Glegg, Anna Soubry, Labour’s Pat McFadden; Liberal Democrat Norman Lamb. Others like – MP Chuka Umunna, Dominic Grieve etc…I hear also (not confirmed: but wouldn’t surprise me) that they are receiving EU funding. Honest poll! Hmm! NO!

sibrydionmawr
6 years ago
Reply to  kim erswell

Why all the shitstirring Kim? I’m sure that YouGov is about as impartial as any other polling company you could mention, and the only reason you take issue with the results is because they don’t reflect your particular bias. Would you be as critical of a poll organised by the Daily Mail using an allegedly dodgy polling company with right-wing leanings that presented findings more in line with your belief system? I personally doubt that you would, and indeed, I suspect that you’d pull out all the stops to defend such findings if they were subjected to a similar level… Read more »

Radek Piskorski
Radek Piskorski
6 years ago

But what does “not willing to pay for Brexit” mean? If Brexit has some costs attached, do these people prefer to remain? I think the poll could have included that.

DAIBOY
DAIBOY
6 years ago

In. Out. Leave. Remain. Whatever. Brexit is the best opportunity we’ve ever had, to break up the uk.

kim erswell
kim erswell
6 years ago
Reply to  DAIBOY

DaiBoy, dach i’n deallus…Uchel pimp!

Capitalist and Welshnash
Capitalist and Welshnash
6 years ago
Reply to  kim erswell

Uchel pump…. ha.

Na.

Dos o ma!

Tame Frontiersman
Tame Frontiersman
6 years ago

Les Britanniques veulent avoir le beurre et l’argent du beurre – comme il est convenu de dire chez les Françaises

Edeyrn
Edeyrn
6 years ago

I believe in a peaceful connected Europe…..the EU is just a corrupted version of that…..some good yes (lets not deny a few pluses) – but theres a lot of that imperialist german/france and spain penis swinging going on

Red Dragon Jim
Red Dragon Jim
6 years ago
Reply to  Edeyrn

I hear you. The Euro is a big problem for me. It’s far from a dead currency but “policing” it requires punishing austerity. And once you’re in, the costs of leaving are devastating, as Greece contemplated. Ireland faced it too but has recovered. Portugal is picking up too. Greece will take longer but outside of fascism and the communists there is no desire to leave the Euro or EU. On the other hand, being inside the EU or even just its Single Market, but keeping your own currency, is the “sweet spot”. This is what the UK has and what… Read more »

Trailorboy
Trailorboy
6 years ago
Reply to  Red Dragon Jim

fiscal realities. The Greek debt was not caused by the Euro. If the Greeks had been using the Drachma, not pegged to any other currency it would have been wiped out, by currency speculators and things would have been even worse. If it had exited the EU the entire economy would have been wiped out.

The austerity programs they have had to endure are down to their economy being bust, borrowing more than thry could support and gross abuses in their tax systems.

Red Dragon Jim
Red Dragon Jim
6 years ago
Reply to  Trailorboy

I agree almost fully. There was and is no prospect of Greece leaving the EU or Euro, despite what has been endured. Brexiteers like to suddenly care about Greece, but don’t support the stance on Europe of its elected government or populace.

Trailorboy
Trailorboy
6 years ago
Reply to  Red Dragon Jim

I think I picked-up on your comment when you said “sweet spot”. I agree that the political sweet spot might be to continue using the same currency, but economically it might be somewhere else. I’m not sufficiently economically literate to know the best solution and have no personal attachment or preference for any particular solution or currency. At the end of the day, I would hope the outcome if it ever happened, would be the one that is based on the answer that gives us the best opportunities to grow our economy and have sufficient resilience built in. If it… Read more »

Capitalist and Welshnash
Capitalist and Welshnash
6 years ago

Naeth Cymru ddim eisiau cael ei goresgyn chwaith, ond mae wedi digwydd, yndê?

Cymru did not wanting to have itself conquered either, but it happened, did it not?

investigator
6 years ago

The welsh will not have to pay a penny. Neither will you get a penny from grants etc. The time is over for free handouts. Nonetheless there will be lots of new jobs to compensate. We need to produce our own food and stand alone and strong in the world -you are welcome to help us in achieving this noble aim.

Rob
Rob
6 years ago

This is interesting and may or may not be relevant: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/brexit-and-the-squeezed-middle/

Dafis
Dafis
6 years ago
Reply to  Rob

Rob – that article is very interesting but probably too “provocative” for the likes of Owen Jones and many of our obsessed political leaders here in Wales. It’s been far too easy for these people to dismiss the Leave vote as an aberration, the lower classes rebelling against Cameron or Tom Cobley or someone else. People ranted on at length about the demographic mix of the Leave vote as though a definitive line by line breakdown of results was freely available. Yet the ballot was secret and results were expressed as totals per constituency/region. It was fair to draw broad… Read more »

Derrek Groeneveld
Derrek Groeneveld
6 years ago

Um, a bit torn here, my grandfather was Welsh and my father was Dutch. I am pro EU, not because it is a well run institution (it is anything but), but I feel with other global blocs rising such as India and China – us Europeans have to stick together somehow. However that being said, didn’t Wales vote for Brexit? You reap what you sow. Any benefit or loss to Wales post Brexit is a direct result of what I suspect is a rather ill informed electorate voicing their choice. Wales must live by this choice.

jh1950
jh1950
6 years ago

Unfortunately Derrek you are correct those ill-informed have cast the mould of thier continuing poverty because they believed the lies from Johnson, Gove, Stuart, Farrage and the like. In a few years time I expect many of the leavers will be bitterly regretting their vote; or blaming not themselves but the Welsh Assembly.

Eos Pengwern
Eos Pengwern
6 years ago

Um, so, what would people have answered if the question was “how much money are you prepared to lose by remaining in the EU?“. Losing money as a result of Brexit is pure speculation, whereas we know for an absolute fact (that not even Remainers dispute) that we pay net ~£280 million per week (not £350 million as the Conservative wing of the Leave campaign claimed, but still a lot of money).

Put another way, we’re all currently paying on average £250 per person per year, net, to remain in the EU.

Wrexhamian
Wrexhamian
6 years ago

The Welsh people voted for Brexit well aware of the short-term economic hardship that it would entail. In or out of the EU, Wales will struggle economically when independence is finally gained, but it will be ‘a battle worth the blood’. We should now be focusing on maximising our autonomy through greater devolution as a precursor to full sovereignty, and bringing up the issues which make continued membership of the UK no longer in our interests (not that it ever was). If an independent Wales desperately wants to join the EU, then that’s a project for the distant future. Right… Read more »

Wales's future in Welsh hands
Wales's future in Welsh hands
6 years ago

Brexit will be bad for Wales full stop. Without a doubt Wales will be better off independent in the future.

Chris Langley
6 years ago

We are all stronger and better off working together;
as in a union in the workplace.
Separatism and nationalism is a one way street to lower standards of living coupled with the threat of conflict.
Conspirital comments such as ‘YouGov is corrupt’ needs to be backed by evidence. Have any? No?

Wales's future in Welsh hands
Wales's future in Welsh hands
6 years ago

Yes, we are stronger together but not under the current political system. Wales needs more autonomy as much of the wealth generated in the UK doesn’t leave the South East. A federal UK of separate individual countries – ideally within the EU – makes more sense.

RedGrouper #FBPE (@RedGrouper)

A few people here saying they think that poll is rigged because they know lots of people who still want to leave. I am sure they do know these people. They might well want to leave and some of them say they want to leave at any cost. But what really mean is costs to other people. They make the assumption that that they personally will be unaffected. For them it’s just about cocking a snook to authority. However, when people are asked directly if they are prepared to lose any money-as in this poll- they inevitably say no. The… Read more »

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