Majority back continued single market membership after Brexit, new poll finds

Prime Minister Theresa May shakes hands with Jean-Claude Juncker
Reuters

The majority of Britons would support remaining in the single market and customs union post-Brexit, a new opinion poll suggests.

Some 60 per cent of those surveyed said they backed remaining in the single market, with 24 per cent neither agreeing nor disagreeing and 16 per cent opposed.

The BMG Research poll for website Left Foot Forward found that 57 per cent said the UK should remain a member of the customs union, with 16 per cent said it should leave.

The survey was carried out before French President Emmanuel Macron warned that a post-Brexit free trade agreement would not provide full access to the single market for financial services at the same level as that offered to members.

Speaking alongside Theresa May after a UK-France summit on Thursday, he said: "I want to make sure that the single market is preserved because that is very much the heart of the EU.

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"The choice is on the British side, not on my side. But there can be no differentiated access for the financial services.

"If you want access to the single market - including the financial services - be my guest. But it means that you need to contribute to the budget and acknowledge European jurisdiction.

"Such are the rules, and we know the system already in place for Norway."

The Prime Minister plans for the UK to leave the single market and customs union but strike a bespoke deal which will preserve many of the benefits.

"We recognise that as we leave the EU we will no longer be full members of the single market," she said.

"We recognise that. There will be a different relationship in future, a different balance of rights and responsibilities, and we've been very clear about that.

"But I believe that it is actually in the interest not only of the United Kingdom, but also the European Union as it goes forward, to continue to have a good economic relationship and partnership with the UK and I believe that should cover both goods and services."

- BMG Research surveyed a representative sample of 1,513 UK adults online between January 9 and 12.