More Britons want to leave EU despite heightened diplomacy
A new poll suggests the number of Britons wanting their country to quit the European Union has risen further despite a fresh diplomacy to keep the UK within the 28-nation bloc.
The campaign to leave the bloc has a nine-point lead in the latest opinion poll published on Friday. The YouGov poll conducted for the Times shows 45% Britons now support “Brexit” compared with 36% who oppose the move.
According to the poll, 19% of those surveyed said they’re planning not to vote in the referendum to decide whether Britain stays in Europe.
The survey comes just two days after the bloc unveiled proposals that Prime Minister David Cameron negotiated with the EU leadership that could change the UK’s relationship with Brussels.
Two previous polls published in December indicated a closer race between the two camps. However, the growing out-camp is expected to put further pressure on Cameron who has already defended the proposed EU deal ahead of the crunch meeting in Brussels later in February.
Cameron has held a series of talks with European leaders including the European council president, Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister Beata Szydlo and German chancellor Angela Merkel who were in London to attend a Syria donor conference.
The prime minister is also scheduled to meet the political groups in the European Parliament on 16 February, two days before the leaders’ summit there.
The EU membership has long been a contentious topic in Britain. Pro-Europeans warn that Britain’s exit would shake the Union to its core. Opponents of EU membership say Britain would prosper outside the bloc.
London has been demanding reforms in several areas, the most controversial one being a four-year ban on top-up benefits for EU nationals working in Britain.
On Tuesday, the EU came up with proposals that include an immediate brake on benefit payments for EU workers. However, euro-skeptic British lawmakers quickly slammed the proposal calling it as inadequate. They also accused Cameron of exposing the bitterness that could surround the referendum campaign.
Proposals to allow Britain to delay paying benefits to workers from elsewhere in the EU are under intense scrutiny, especially from Poland, the biggest source of Britain's migrant labor force. After meeting with Cameron in Warsaw, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who as head of the ruling Law and Justice party is viewed as the ultimate decision maker in Poland, said he was satisfied.
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