Only 16 percent of respondents said that the United Kingdom should quit the Single Market, while 24 percent were reluctant to respond to this question, the poll by BMG Research said.
The level of Single Market support was higher among Labour Party proponents than Conservative Party voters, which backed staying with 71 percent and 54 percent, respectively, according to the poll.
"It is clear that a majority of the British public and an even greater proportion of Labour voters want the UK to stay in the Single Market and Customs Union. That’s the best anti-austerity policy there is, because it protects businesses and jobs – keeping revenue flowing to the Exchequer that can be spent on public investment and services. It is vital we stand up against Theresa May’s false claims that it is necessary to leave the Single Market and Customs Union if Brexit takes place," Chuka Umunna, a leading supporter of Open Britain and co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on EU Relations, said as quoted by the media outlet.
The second phase of EU-UK negotiations is expected to start in March and focus on the transition period in EU-UK relations after Brexit, and their future long-term trade and security cooperation. Brexit negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union are due to be completed by March 30, 2019.
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Back in February, the UK government issued its strategy, which envisages an exit from the EU Single Market, and a goal to pursue a new strategic partnership with the EU aimed at the freest possible trade in goods and services and the UK's regained control over its borders.
The so-called soft Brexit implies that the United Kingdom will remain close to the arrangements with the bloc, accept the four freedoms of the Single Market — goods, capital, services and labor — and continue allowing EU nationals to live and work in the United Kingdom. A hard Brexit will result in new trade deals, London losing access to EU Single Market, and control over immigration from the European Union to the United Kingdom.
