The Guardian: Big majority of Labour members 'want UK to stay in single market'

17 July 2017

Support for Britain to remain in the EU single market and customs union is overwhelming among Labour party members, according to a poll showing that more than eight out of 10 think the UK should stay in Europe’s key trading blocs.

The figures, from research carried out as part of the Party Members Projectfunded by the Economic and Social Research Council and shared exclusively with the Guardian, also show heavy backing for a second referendum.

The figures could pile pressure on Jeremy Corbyn over his party’s position on Brexit, which is currently against maintaining full single market membership, because he is determined to give members a bigger voice.

The Labour leader told his party’s MPs on Monday night that the party had 560,000 members whom he wanted to be actively engaging with.

On Brexit, the survey revealed that their views are fiercely pro-EU, including that:

• 49% of members think there should “definitely” be a vote on the final Brexit deal, with a further 29.4% answering “more yes than no” to the question, and only 8.8% definitely opposing it.
• Two-thirds of members (66%) think Britain should definitely stay in the single market with a further fifth (20.7%) saying “more yes than no” to the question. Only 4.2% of Labour members said they definitely believed Britain should leave the grouping.
• There were similar levels of support on the customs union with 63.1% saying Britain should definitely stay within the group, 22.2% leaning towards the same position, and only 2.4% saying the UK should definitely leave it.

Full article on The Guardian

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