Britons split down the middle on EU exit, says poll

A referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU could go to the wire, judging by a new opinion poll suggesting the rival camps are almost level.

The Conservatives have made a plebiscite on EU membership one of their biggest general election manifesto promises, although David Cameron, the party leader, says he would campaign to remain in the bloc after securing reforms.

The survey by Populus says 39 per cent of the public are in favour of leaving against 40 per cent wanting to stay.

Support for a so-called "Brexit" is much stronger among the older generations, who are also more likely to vote. Those aged 45 or over are in favour of leaving by 47 per cent to 35 per cent. But those aged 18 to 44 years back remaining by 47 per cent to 29 per cent.

"There is a real divide between those two different age groups. There seems to be more enthusiasm for staying among younger voters," said Rick Nye, managing director of Populus.

There is also a much stronger support for leaving the EU among the "C2DEs" - manual workers - than professional, white-collar "ABC1s".

Labour supporters want to stay by a margin of 58 per cent to 25 per cent. Tory supporters would rather leave by 43 per cent to 39 per cent.

Supporters of the Liberal Democrats would prefer to remain by 58 per cent to 32 per cent.

Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, is a firm advocate for staying within the bloc but his party is expected to agree to a referendum if it forms a second coalition with the Tories - as part of a broader deal.

<

The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused.

However, Mr Nye cautioned that support for the status quo could grow as any referendum grew closer. "If David Cameron - who would be prime minister in this scenario - threw all his weight into achieving reforms, whatever they may be, the public mood could change," he said. "You also often find that the status quo option gains as a decision day draws near."

Jose Manuel Barroso, former European Commission president, said his "sincere impression" was that Britain would remain in the bloc. "If there is a referendum, David Cameron has been clear that he wants Britain to remain. With the exception of some xenophobic parties who are strongly against foreigners, all the parties are for the EU."

The Populus poll also found that Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish nationalists had been the most impressive party leader so far in the election campaign, according to those polled between April 10 and 12.

Some 38 per cent of voters thought she had performed better than expected against only 12 per cent who said she had failed to meet expectations.

Ms Sturgeon was widely seen to have come across well in the televised debate between seven party leaders.

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, also outperformed with 29 per cent thinking he had done better than anticipated against 23 per cent for worse. Mr Cameron came in at 21:23, Nigel Farage at 19:24 and Nick Clegg at 16:23.

Almost two-thirds of those polled thought the government needed to eliminate the deficit over the next five years, in line with varying commitments by the three main parties.

Among those, 39 per cent think spending cuts should be prioritised while 2 per cent opt for tax increases.

© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation