The EU and UK are facing a no-Brexit deal scenario (Photo: By Dave Kellam, via Wikimedia Commons)
The majority of people in the UK would now vote to remain part of the European Union, according to a new poll.
A YouGov survey on Friday (10 August) suggests 53 percent of voters would choose to stay in the EU, if a referendum was held now, as opposed to 47 percent who would opt to leave.
The survey canvassed more than 10,000 people ahead of Britain’s uncertain departure from the Union next March.
The BBC further reports that 82 percent of young people from 18 to 24 years of age would vote remain should a second referendum be held, citing an average of polls conducted over the past three months.
This compares to the some two-thirds of those over 65 who would vote leave.
Meanwhile, talks between the EU and the UK have floundered over the past few months as internal political rifts in Britain appear to further expose tensions over the issue.
Earlier this week, police chiefs in the UK issued warnings of “substantial risk to public safety” by losing access to EU security databases.
The National Farmers’ Union had also warned a no-deal Brexit runs the risk of food shortages as the British pound dropped to a nine-month low against the euro.
Jersey model
The EU and UK have remained at loggerheads on how to proceed given their respective red lines.
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, maintains there can be “no cherry-picking” when it comes to retaining UK access to the EU single market for goods.
But The Times, a British newspaper, citing unnamed sources, has reported that the EU may now be willing to make a big concession to appease UK demands.
According to The Times, European leaders may be ready to allow the UK to remain a part of the single market for goods while allowing Britain to opt out of the free movement of people.
The plan is expected to be presented next month at a summit of EU member states in Salzburg, Austria.
The reported proposal is based on the so-called ‘Jersey model’ where the UK would remain in the single market for goods.
“If May came with the Jersey model there would be a serious discussion among leaders for the first time,” a senior EU source, was quoted as saying in The Times.
The EU, in exchange, would then demand that UK’s prime minister Theresa May, adopt all future EU environmental and social protections.
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