Few think the EU trade deal is good for Britain, but most want MPs to accept it

Matthew SmithHead of Data Journalism
December 30, 2020, 9:18 AM GMT+0

Just one in six think the terms of the agreement represent a good deal

With MPs set to vote on the EU trade deal this afternoon, a new YouGov survey finds that a majority of Britons want to see the agreement accepted. By a wide margin of 57% to 9%, the public want to see the deal passed.

Majorities of both Leave voters (69%) and Remain voters (58%) want to see Parliament pass the deal, as do 78% of Conservative voters.

Half of Labour voters also want MPs to pass the deal (48%), four times the number who want them to block it (12%). This will be welcome news for Keir Starmer, who has come under fire from some within the Labour party for telling MPs to vote for the deal.

While there is strong support for accepting the deal, that is not to say that Britons are pleased with the deal. Only 17% say they think the terms represent a good deal for Britain. Slightly more (21%) think it represents a bad deal, while another 31% see it as neither good nor bad. A further one in three (31%) aren’t sure.

Support is lukewarm among Leave voters, with only 27% saying the deal is a good one, compared to 38% saying it will be neither good nor bad. Nevertheless, only 10% see it as a bad deal.

By comparison, a YouGov survey in mid-December found that 33% of Leave voters thought leaving the transition period without a trade deal at all would be good for Britain, while 32% believed it would make no difference. One in five (20%) thought it would be bad for the country.

Conservative voters aren’t much more enamoured with the fruits of Boris Johnson’s labours. One in three (33%) think the deal will be good for Britain, while another 39% think it will be neither good nor bad. Just 7% think it will be bad for the country, however.

Labour and Remain voters are much more negative. Slightly more than a third of each voting group (36-37%) think the deal will be bad for Britain, with a further 28-29% thinking it will be neither good nor bad. Only 5% of Labour voters and 9% of Remain voters think the deal will be good for the UK.

See the full results here and here

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