A new poll released today by YouGov shows that support for Labour would drastically decrease if Jeremy Corbyn’s party were to adopt a position of opposing Brexit – that is, according to the Labour leader’s former spokesman Matt Zarb-Cousin.
Zarb-Cousin’s argument stands in stark contrast to the demands of vehement pro-Remain supporters both inside and outside the party who argue that the party should oppose Brexit at whatever cost.
The latest research by YouGov follows Theresa May’s disastrous Chequers meeting where a firm plan for Brexit was thought to have been agreed by her Cabinet, only for the Brexit Secretary David Davis and the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to resign over the plan just days later.
The YouGov poll shows that 75% of the general public now believe that the Tories are handling Brexit badly – up from 66% before the Chequers agreement:
In just a few days in the aftermath of Chequers the proportion of Brits who think the government is handling Brexit badly has jumped from 66% to 75% https://t.co/B5q6sOVTVC pic.twitter.com/ZGHLEpBIR0
— YouGov (@YouGov) July 12, 2018
But perhaps the biggest revelation is that further research in the data shows that a large proportion of the General Public believe that Theresa May’s vision of Brexit is either not hard enough or about right, with just 13% believing that the Tories’ vision is too hard.
The data shows that a total of 53% of the General Public believe that the Tories’ Brexit vision is being conducted either too softly or about right, indicating that there still appears to be little appetite in the country to overturn the result of the Brexit referendum.
The Prime Minister's approach to Brexit is…
Too soft – 40%
Too hard – 12%
About right – 13%https://t.co/B5q6sOEj44 pic.twitter.com/wzRBIaH2I9— YouGov (@YouGov) July 12, 2018
Following the release of the latest research, the former spokesman for Jeremy Corbyn, Matt Zarb-Cousin, tweeted to say that:
“This is where the public is on leaving the EU. So the Blairites arguing Labour need to be opposing Brexit either have sinister motives or they’re politically inept. Both explanations are plausible”
And when questioned by a pro-Brexit campaigner about the premise of the question being based on the country definitely leaving, Zarb-Cousin simply noted that:
“Don’t think people who want a harder Brexit are remainers, somehow”
Don’t think people who want a harder Brexit are remainers, somehow
— Matt Zarb-Cousin (@mattzarb) July 12, 2018
Zarb-Cousin then went on to tentatively agree with another Twitter user who said that there wasn’t a ‘Brexit deal possible from this point onwards that does more for jobs and living standards than staying in the Single Market and Customs Union does‘, but replied saying ‘you’ve got to get into govt to do that‘ and added:
“Arguing you’d reverse Brexit would hand the Conservatives a majority”
Perhaps. But you’ve got to get into govt to do that. Arguing you’d reverse Brexit would hand the Conservatives a majority
— Matt Zarb-Cousin (@mattzarb) July 12, 2018
The results of the poll do seem to fly in the face of staunch pro-Remain campaigners who have attempted to lambast the Labour Party, and especially Jeremy Corbyn, for pledging to uphold the result of the referendum despite campaigning to remain.
The hashtag #FBPE was started on Twitter many months ago to signify a user’s pro-Remain, anti-Brexit stance, and numerous ardent #FBPE supporters can be regularly observed on Twitter lambasting the party for not opposing the referendum result.
Labour garnered 40% of the vote in 2017, with Jeremy Corbyn coming just 2,227 votes away from becoming Prime Minister. The party managed to do this by gaining a large proportion of the former UKIP vote who were seemingly reluctant to vote for an obviously pro-Establishment, anti-working class Conservative Party.
However, were Jeremy Corbyn’s party now to adopt such a stance of opposing the results of a democratically held referendum, the research released today indicates that support for the party could indeed plummet, and leave Jeremy Corbyn almost certainly struggling to gain anywhere near enough support across the board to win at the next General Election.
