Half of UK voters support referendum on Brexit deal, no deal or staying: Sky

LONDON (Reuters) - Half of British voters support a referendum to choose between leaving with a deal that the government may clinch with the European Union, leaving with no deal or staying in the EU, Sky News reported on Monday, citing its own poll.

Anti-Brexit demonstrators wave EU and Union flags opposite the Houses of Parliament, in London, Britain, June 19, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo

The poll showed 40 percent opposed such a vote, while 10 percent did not know.

With less than eight months left until Britain is due to leave the EU, there is little clarity about how trade will flow as Prime Minister Theresa May, who is grappling with a rebellion in her party, struggles to strike a deal with the bloc.

May has stepped up planning for a so called “no-deal” Brexit that would see the world’s fifth largest economy crash out of the EU on March 29, 2019, a step that could spook financial markets and dislocate trade flows across Europe and beyond.

The Sky poll showed 78 percent of voters thought May’s government was doing a bad job of negotiating Brexit, up 23 percentage points from March. Just 10 percent thought the government was doing a good job.

May’s approval rating has fallen to 24 percent, the poll showed. Voters were split on whether Brexit would be good or bad for the country: 40 percent said it would be good and 51 percent said it would be bad.

In the June 23, 2016 referendum, 17.4 million voters, or 51.9 percent of the votes cast, backed leaving the EU while 16.1 million voters, or 48.1 percent of votes cast, backed staying. Many opinion polls were wrong about the result.

When asked to choose between three options - May’s deal, a no deal or staying in the EU - 48 percent said they would prefer to stay in the EU, 27 percent wanted to leave with no deal and 13 percent would opt for the government’s deal.

Eight percent said they would not vote while 3 percent did not know.

Sky Data interviewed a nationally representative sample of 1,466 Sky customers online 20-23 July 2018. Data are weighted to the profile of the population.

Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; additional reporting by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru, editing by Alistair Smout

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