70 per cent believe a £20bn exit payment would be unacceptable
More than half of voters (54 per cent) think it would be acceptable for the UK to accept continued freedom of movement for a few years after Brexit as part of a transitional deal with the EU, according to new ICM/Guardian polling.
Just shy of half of respondents also said it would be acceptable for EU migrants to be given preferential treatment over non-EU migrants after Brexit, with just 28 per cent opposed.
This may reassure British negotiators, suggesting they have some leeway to make compromises on migration.
No ‘exit bill’
However, the same poll found overwhelming opposition to the idea of paying an ‘exit bill’ anywhere close to what the EU is likely to demand.
It has been widely reported that the EU will require payments of up to £50m, although European leaders insist that it shouldn’t be described as a ‘bill’ but rather represents the UK’s outstanding commitments under existing law.
However, today’s poll finds that 46 per cent of people believe a payment as low as three billion pounds would be unacceptable, while a third say it would be acceptable.
Asked about a £10bn bill, 64 per cent said it would be unacceptable and just 17 per cent said it would be acceptable. And asked about a £20bn bill, just 10 per cent said it would be acceptable while 70 per cent were opposed.
While the UK government has insisted that £50bn is an opening bid by the EU and can be negotiated down, bringing the figure below £20bn will be extremely difficult, according to recent reports.
Additionally, the EU insists that until the financial payment is agreed, no talks on a future trade deal can take place.
The poll also found that 47 per cent believe it would be unacceptable for the UK to continue accepting European Court of Justice rulings as part of a transitional arrangement, while 34 per cent believe it would be acceptable.
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4 Responses to “Poll: Voters are willing to extend freedom of movement – but won’t accept ‘a Brexit bill’”
nhsgp
Not looking good for the EU then, desperate for cash, desperate for jobs. EU citizens fleeing the Eurozone for the UK.
So what’s interesting too is that this bill wasn’t mentioned by remain during the referendum. One of the big lies by omission.
I wonder why the hide that.
What’s also clear, you can’t have 350 million a week for the NHS if you cave to EU demands for 60 billion.
Now since the UK is 11.5% of the budget, 13,000 Eurocrats, you can work out that the EU thinks that they are owed 13.6 million Euro each.
Next, isn’t it fraud to hide debts off the accounts? Perhaps a European arrest warrant for Junker, thrown to the wolves, might passify the plebs.
Julia Gibb
Where do the voters get their information from on any issue when the state controls the media.
It takes a great deal of control and spin to manipulate all of the press outlets in Scotland.
If they can do it in Scotland they can do it anywhere. Journalism is dead
https://wingsoverscotland.com/that-context-thing-again/
Boffy
Yes, the Remain campaign should have told voters that leaving would cost them around £50 billion to cover all the costs that Britain has contracted within the EU. That may have helped them decide not to vote to Leave. After all the leave campaign certainly were not going to warn them of that danger, anymore than they would warn them that all the crap about stopping immigration wouldn’t happen, because the kind of low skill/low wage, high debt economy they envisage requires lots of immigrants coming in to make up for the fact that they have no intention of spending any money on training anyone to do anything.
Another sign yesterday was that the EU economy is seeing continued improvements with its PMI data rising to over 56, whilst Britain’s continues to decline into stagflation. But then even the economists for Leave agreed that Brexit would cause UK manufacturing to be wiped out. Its a price they are prepared to pay, to coin a Tory phrase form the 1980’s, to push wages down further, and to focus the economy on gambling and speculation, and the dodgy money of Russian billionaires coming into the economy.
Alasdair Macdonald
Of course, “Brexit Bill” is a political/media creation to stoke the sense of injustice against the ‘foreigners’, in the same way that the Gibraltar position is being portrayed as a need for the ‘Falklands spirit’.
The so-called ‘Bill’ is simply the treaty requirements which the UK agreed to when signing up for the EEC in 1973 and amended in the various subsequent treaties and heads of Government conferences.
The EU referendum campaign was characterised by shocking mendacity and this continues into the negotiations for leaving, including the dealings with Gibraltar, Northern Ireland and Scotland, who all voted strongly to REMAIN – far stronger than the aggregate majority for LEAVE was.