New Poll Shows How Many Britons Think Parl't Should Approve May's Brexit Deal

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The UK citizens are dissatisfied with the recently-negotiated draft Brexit deal with the European Union, with just over 28 percent of them saying that the country's parliament should vote in favor of the proposed agreement, a poll carried out by the Hanbury Strategy and obtained by the Politico newspaper revealed on Thursday.

According to the results of the poll, almost 45 per cent of the respondents said that the lawmakers should not support the Brexit deal, and another 27 per cent could not give a definite answer. Additionally, over 33 per cent of the UK citizens believe that not only should the parliament vote the proposal down, but another referendum should be held on the country's membership in the bloc.

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Another 27 per cent of the UK citizens would prefer the lawmakers to reject the deal as well and would choose to leave the bloc with no "divorce" agreement at all.

Almost 29 per cent of the respondents said that the draft deal came as a "betrayal" of the 2016 referendum results, while another 27 per cent said the proposed agreement was not an improvement on the country's membership in the bloc and the United Kingdom should not have left at all in that case.

While almost 31 per cent of the respondents said that the deal with Brussels was bad, but London should nonetheless try and renegotiate its conditions, another 23 per cent believe that the country should leave with no deal. Only 12 per cent of the respondents said that the UK government should go for the agreement despite the fact that it was not good enough.

The poll also revealed that over 52 per cent of the respondents said that avoiding a hard Irish border was worth temporarily staying in the bloc's Customs Union.

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More than 45 per cent of the respondents believe that it's not the right time to challenge the leadership of Prime Minister Theresa May.

The poll was conducted among a total of 505 respondents online on Wednesday, just hours after the UK Cabinet backed the draft EU-UK agreement, which had been confirmed on Tuesday. President of the European Council Donald Tusk said earlier on Thursday that the council would hold a meeting to finalize the agreement on November 25. 

Over Half of Britons Want to Remain in EU After Draft Brexit Deal

In addition, a new poll by the Sky Data poll, published later in the day, showed that over a half of Britons wanted the United Kingdom to stay in the European Union and would back a second Brexit referendum. It was conducted among the channel's 1,488 clients and revealed that 54 per cent did not want Brexit, while 32 per cent would prefer a no-deal withdrawal. Only 14 per cent backed the draft.

In 2016, 48 per cent said "no" to a divorce with the union, which was backed by close to 52 per cent of UK nationals. The withdrawal begins next March and the transition period ends in December 2020.

Fifty-five per cent said they should have a second vote on whether to stay in the union. Slightly over 30 per cent also said Prime Minister Theresa May was the best person to lead the country through Brexit, while opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was backed by 24 per cent.

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The contents of the provisional agreement were revealed by EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Wednesday. According to Barnier, the two sides have agreed on such issues as London's financial settlement with the bloc, future trade relations, the Irish border and citizens' rights after Brexit, among other things. London and Brussels also provisionally agreed to establish an EU-UK single customs territory, with Northern Ireland set to be tied to some EU single market rules to avoid a hard border.

The deal has already prompted the resignation of UK Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Esther McVey and Minister of State for Northern Ireland Shailesh Vara.

The United Kingdom voted in favour of Brexit in 2016 and is set to depart from the European Union by late March 2019.