Public back Rishi Sunak to keep talking on Brexit deal – new poll

Dominic Raab gives update on Brexit

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Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is closing in on a deal with the EU on Northern Ireland with an exclusive poll showing on balance voters back his high risk strategy. The Techne UK finding for Express.co.uk showed that 49 percent want him to keep talking compared to 31 percent who think he should walk away.

This follows a poll by Techne UK last week which revealed that 53 percent opposed a compromise deal with the EU over Northern Ireland leaving the Prime Minister in a difficult position.

Even 51 percent Remainer voters from 2016 opposed a compromise deal in that poll.

But this week, both Leave voters and Remainers appeared to agree on balance that Mr Sunak is right to push his talks with the EU and not walk away.

According to the findings from a poll of 1,633 voters, 45 percent of Leavers opposed him walking away compared to 36 percent in favour.

Meanwhile, 54 percent of Remainers opposed him walking away.

Among Conservative supporters the gap is much narrower – 43 percent want him to keep talking while 39 percent would rather he walked away.

It comes amid concerns that Mr Sunak may need to use Labour votes to get a deal over the line this week and senior ministers including Suella Braverman may end up quitting the government.

A source from the European Research Group of Tory Brexiteers said that the strategy taken by the Prime Minister was “reminiscent of Theresa May” and her attempts to get an EU compromise with her so called Chequers deal which led to Boris Johnson and others quitting her government.

“It’s a mess!” the ERG member added.

The ERG source also pointed out that the problem was that Mr Sunak has “taken control of the talks” from Foreign Secretary James Cleverly who MPs claim is “annoyed”.

A deal is expected within the next 48 hours but a Foreign Office source has insisted that a draft document “does not yet exist”.

The ERG member warned: “This could be make or break for [Sunak’s] Premiership. Those polls show he is in between a rock and a hard place as they say.”

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