Support for Brexit is collapsing as poll finds shrinking minority of British people still back leaving the EU

• A growing number of British people believe it was wrong for the UK to leave the EU.
• A new poll found that Brexit regret is at its highest level since the 2016 referendum.
• The survey comes as the UK and EU engage in a period of intense negotiations as they try to negotiate a free trade agreement to avoid a no-deal Brexit in January.
• Just 28% of people think the government is handling Britain’s exit from the EU well, compared to 61% who think the government is handling it badly.
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A growing number of British people believe it was wrong for the UK to have voted to leave the EU, according to a new poll, which found that Brexit regret is at its highest level since the 2016 referendum.

A poll for YouGov of 1,623 British adults conducted last week, suggests that 50% now believe Britain was wrong to leave the European Union, the highest figure the polling company has recorded since it began asking the question.

By contrast, just 39% of people said that Britain was right to leave the EU.

The gap between those who still back leaving the EU and those who now believe it was wrong has grown by 8 points since the start of September.

Once uncertain voters are removed from the total, the poll suggests 56% think Brexit was a mistake compared to 44% who still think it was right.

The survey also found that just 28% of people think the government is handling Britain’s exit from the EU well, down from 30 points earlier in September. That compares to a total of 61% who think the government is handling it badly, up by 5 points from the beginning of September.

Even many Leave voters are dissatisfied with the government’s progress, with 39% saying negotiations have been handled badly.

The latest polling comes as the UK and EU engage in a period of intense negotiations as they try to negotiate a free trade agreement to avoid a no-deal Brexit in January, which could compound a period of intense economic gloom triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

The UK is currently in a Brexit transition period, which means it remains signed up to EU rules and trades within its single market despite the fact it has formally left the bloc. Johnson has insisted that the UK will not extend the transition period and says that both sides must have struck a deal by mid-October.

However, talks stalled after Johnson brought in a new UK Internal Markets Bill, which ministers confirmed would “break international law” by overriding parts of the legally binding Brexit Withdrawal Agreement agreed by both sides last year.