The poll was conducted by and among Tories in a small area of the UK known to be sympathetic to quitting the EU
Today’s Daily Express claims that 80 per cent of British people want to quit the EU.
In what it calls the ‘biggest vote on this country’s ties to Brussels for 40 years’, the paper cites a poll which says that 11,706 out of 14,581 people voted to leave. The Express goes on to claim that the ‘overwhelming’ result boosts its own crusade to get Britain out of Europe.
Yet even the most cursory examination of the polling method used by the paper reveals the results to be skewed to the point of discredit.
The poll was organised by Conservative MPs Peter Bone and Philip Hollobone and Conservative candidate Tom Purslove, and was conducted across their three constituencies in North Northamptonshire – Wellingborough, Kettering and Corby and East Northamptonshire.
In other words, this was a poll of Tories in one section of the country: the three in question are right-wing Tories who organised a poll among their own voters. This isn’t representative, as the Express claims.
In the East Midlands, where the constituencies are situated, UKIP received 32.9 percent of the votes in May’s European elections. Furthermore, UKIP and the Tories are closely aligned in this area.
UKIP have made several attempts to poach Mr Hollobone; in September they delayed selecting a candidate for Kettering because they were sure they could convince him to defect.
Outgoing local party chairman Jonathan Bullock said that ‘his views are exactly those of UKIP, they are not those of David Cameron’. Hollobone refuses to meet with constituents who wear a burqa or niqab, and has attempted to pass a Face Coverings (Prohibition) bill.
Peter Bone, meanwhile, wrote in an editorial for The Guardian in which he claimed that the sole reason he hadn’t defected to UKIP was because only Cameron could deliver a referendum on the EU.
And Tom Pursglove wrote last April for Conservative Home that:
“The British people have been denied their say on our membership of the European Union since 1975. When I am out knocking on doors in Corby and East Northamptonshire as part of my Listening Campaign, people regularly tell me that it is about time they had the chance to have their say.
“It is for that reason that Peter Bone MP, Philip Hollobone MP and I, as the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Corby and East Northamptonshire, are today launching a North Northamptonshire wide In-Out EU Referendum”.
So this ‘historic’ poll was conducted among people that the three MPs already knew were sympathetic to their aims and likely to give them the answer they wanted. Even today Bone admitted that, across the country, votes for an exit would ‘not [be] on the scale we have seen in North Northamptonshire’.
This is not to say that there is not a significant number of voters who want to quit the EU. The figures shift constantly, but tend to be roughly split down the middle. A Populus poll last April showed that 35 per cent of those surveyed would vote to stay and 32 per cent to leave.
An Ipsos Mori poll conducted in October indicated the highest level of British support for EU membership since 1991, with 56 per cent voting to stay in.
Ruby Stockham is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow her on Twitter
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118 Responses to “80 per cent of Britons want to leave the EU, says the Express. Except they don’t”
Dave Clarkson
After the Islamic incidents in France, the following reader’s comments
appeared in the Wall Street Journal:
Just an observation…….
The Shoe Bomber was a Muslim
The Beltway Snipers were Muslims
The Fort
Hood Shooter was a Muslim
The underwear Bomber was a Muslim
The U-S.S.
Cole Bombers were Muslims
The Madrid Train Bombers were Muslims
The Bafi
Nightclub Bombers were Muslims
The London Subway Bombers were Muslims
The
Moscow Theatre Attackers were Muslims
The Boston Marathon Bombers were
Muslims
The Pan-Am flight #93 Bombers were Muslims
The Air France Entebbe
Hijackers were Muslims
The Iranian Embassy Takeover, was by Muslims
The
Beirut U.S. Embassy bombers were Muslims
The Libyan U.S. Embassy Attack was
by Muslims
The Buenos Aires Suicide Bombers were Muslims
The Israeli
Olympic Team Attackers were Muslims
The Kenyan U.S, Embassy Bombers were
Muslims
The Saudi, Khobar Towers Bombers were Muslims
The Beirut Marine
Barracks bombers were Muslims
The Besian Russian School Attackers were
Muslims
The first World Trade Center Bombers were Muslims
The Bombay &
Mumbai India Attackers were Muslims
The Achille Lauro Cruise Ship Hijackers
were Muslims
The September 11th 2001 Airline Hijackers were Muslims’
Think of it:
Buddhists living with Hindus = No Problem
Hindus living with Christians =
No Problem
Hindus living with Jews = No Problem
Christians living with
Shintos = No Problem
Shintos living with Confucians = No
Problem
Confusians living with Baha’is = No Problem
Baha’is living with
Jews = No Problem
Jews living with Atheists = No Problem
Atheists living
with Buddhists = No Problem
Buddhists living with Sikhs = No Problem
Sikhs
living with Hindus = No Problem
Hindus living with Baha’is = No
Problem
Baha’is living with Christians = No Problem
Christians living with
Jews = No Problem
Jews living with Buddhists = No Problem
Buddhists living
with Shintos = No Problem
Shintos living with Atheists = No
Problem
Atheists living with Confucians = No Problem
Confusians living
with Hindus = No Problem
Muslims living with Hindus = Problem
Muslims living with Buddhists =
Problem
Muslims living with Christians = Problem
Muslims living with Jews
= Problem
Muslims living with Sikhs = Problem
Muslims living with Baha’is
= Problem
Muslims living with Shintos = Problem
Muslims living with
Atheists = Problem
MUSLIMS LIVING WITH MUSLIMS = BIG PROBLEM
**********SO THIS LED TO *****************
They’re not happy in Gaza
They’re not happy in Egypt
They’re not happy
in Libya
They’re not happy in Morocco
They’re not happy in Iran
They’re
not happy in Iraq
They’re not happy in Yemen
They’re not happy in
Afghanistan
They’re not happy in Pakistan
They’re not happy in
Syria
They’re not happy in Lebanon
They’re not happy in Nigeria
They’re
not happy in Kenya
They’re not happy in Sudan
******** So, where are they happy? **********
They’re happy in Australia
They’re happy in England
They’re happy in
Belgium
They’re happy in France
They’re happy in Italy
They’re happy in
Germany
They’re happy in Sweden
They’re happy in the USA &
Canada
They’re happy in Norway & India
They’re happy in almost every
country that is not Islamic!
And who do they blame….
Not Islam…
Not their leadership…
Not themselves…
THEY BLAME
THE COUNTRIES THEY ARE HAPPY IN!!
And they want to change the countries they’re happy in, to be like the
countries they came from where they were unhappy!
Dave Clarkson
So you too believe the majority want out. The people shall not speak.
Dave Clarkson
But that would involve the horror of the plebs, speaking for themselves. Best leave the thinking to clever little activists, who know best.
Dave Clarkson
And soon enough time will tell, if you are right or wrong.
Mike Stallard
This is the most sensible comment so far, so I will dignify it with a reply.
Nobody wants to leave the trading agreements which we have with Europe.
Nobody wants to be part of a European State like the EUSSR and that is all that is on offer and has been on offer since the 1930s.
So we need a compromise.
The least worst option seems to be Flexit which is to leave the EU and join EFTA. In that way we would at least be as rich as Norway. After that, who knows? With clever negotiation we might be able to resume trading with Africa and also to negotiate as a free country once more.
Hope that helps.
PS The referendum is of no use except as a bargaining tool. The EU will never accept the “wrong” decision.