Brexit Polls: Option For Britain To Remain In European Union Gains Steam In Days Before Critical Referendum

The latest Brexit polls show a growing movement for the effort to keep Britain in the European Union, with two polls published on Saturday showing the “Remain” option surging back into the lead.

Voters in Britain will head to the polls this week to vote on whether their country will remain in the European Union or leave, an option that has taken the name Brexit, short for Britain’s exit. There are many prominent backers on each side, with Prime Minister David Cameron leading the effort to stay and the right-leaning Mail now joining in.

The efforts appear to have some effect, as the choice to stay has now taken the lead after the leave option was winning in polls from earlier in the week.

“We are now in the final week of the referendum campaign and the swing back towards the status quo appears to be in full force,” Anthony Wells, a director with polling firm YouGov, told Reuters.

A YouGov poll released this weekend shows that the option to stay in the European Union has a slim 44-43 percent lead over the option to leave.

The latest Brexit polls show opposite movement from earlier in the week, when the leave option took the lead. A poll released midweek from YouGov (via Reuters) showed 46 percent support for leave and 39 percent support for stay.

There was also a major endorsement for the option to leave the European Union. Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun newspaper came out in support of efforts to leave, publishing a long editorial under the headline “BeLEAVE in Britain” that called on voters to be brave enough to leave the relationship with the EU.

“Outside the EU we can become richer, safer, and free at long last to forge our own destiny — as America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many other great democracies already do. And as we were the first to do centuries ago,” the Sun’s editorial noted.

“If we stay, Britain will be engulfed in a few short years by this relentlessly expanding, German-dominated federal state.”

The editorial added that staying in the European Union would leave Britain unable to exert control over its own fate, especially as it relates to areas like foreign immigration.

“The Remain campaign, made up of the corporate establishment, arrogant europhiles and foreign banks, have set out to terrify us all about life outside the EU.

“Their ‘Project Fear’ strategy predicts mass unemployment, soaring interest rates and inflation, plummeting house prices, even world war.”

The Sunday Times also urged readers to vote to leave the European Union, but said this option would be used to create reforms that would allow Britain to re-enter the EU on a second referendum.

David Cameron said that would be a dangerous strategy.

“This is an irreversible decision with very bad consequences for the British economy,” he said in an interview (via Reuters).

There is widespread interest in the Brexit polls ahead of the June 23 referendum. Financial markets have taken a hit as the leave option took the lead, Reuters reported, with sterling weakening and leaving investors concerned about a potential blow to Britain’s economy and trade partners. There is fear that an exit from the EU could have even wider effects on world markets.

How your money might be affected by a Brexit https://t.co/KohqckNHrm

— The Independent (@Independent) June 19, 2016

Other Brexit polls show what should be a very close vote for the referendum on whether to stay in the European Union or leave. A separate poll released Saturday from Survation showed that the remain had a three-point lead, with the same poll showing that the option to stay was in the lead one week ago. Another poll from Opinium showed that the options were tied at 44 percent support each.

[Photo by Matt Dunham/AP Images]