British voters would vote to rejoin the European Union by 53% to 29% if a referendum were held now, according to new polling by Lord Ashcroft — a striking reversal of the Brexit result, even as voters draw a firm line at joining the euro.
Key Points
- UK voters rejoin EU poll — voters said they would vote to rejoin the EU by 53% to 29%, with 18% saying they did not know or would not vote.
- Joining the euro would be an unacceptable condition of EU membership, voters said, by a 41-point margin.
- Prime Minister Andy Burnham is seen as doing a good job by a 15-point margin, and is named by 40% as the most likely prime minister after the next election.
- Voters were evenly divided between thinking Britain needs radical change or steady, stable management.
The polling, published on Tuesday 10 November, asked voters what they made of Chancellor John Healey’s Budget, whether Britain should rejoin the EU and under what conditions, and whether the country needs steady management or radical change. The Budget was overwhelmingly the most noticed recent political story, mentioned unprompted by more than half of all respondents — but the rejoin finding is the one that will travel furthest.
On the headline question, voters as a whole said they would vote to rejoin by 53% to 29%. The conditions matter as much as the headline: voters said joining the euro would be an unacceptable condition of EU membership by a 41-point margin, a reminder that any future rejoin campaign would have to be fought on British terms — single market access without the single currency.
A prime minister with room to move
The poll also hands the government political capital. Voters said Burnham was doing a good job rather than a bad job by a 15-point margin, and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch by a 3-point margin. Asked who would make the best prime minister, voters chose Burnham over Badenoch by 26 points, with Nigel Farage third on 14%. More than three quarters of 2024 Labour voters preferred Burnham as prime minister, compared with 65% who preferred Keir Starmer in June.
Burnham remains the leader voters consider most likely to be prime minister after the next general election, named by 40%, with 12% naming Farage and 10% naming Badenoch. On the economy, the turnaround is sharp: Burnham and Healey lead Badenoch and her shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith by 12 points on who would do a better job managing the economy — a 17-point swing in five months, after Badenoch and Mel Stride led Starmer and Rachel Reeves by 5 points at the end of May.
What it does — and does not — mean
The findings do not mean a referendum is coming. Rejoining the EU is not government policy: the Burnham government is pursuing a reset of relations with Brussels — including a deal on EU food standards and a student fee swap that is already emerging in talks — rather than membership. The Institute for Fiscal Studies, in its analysis of Healey’s Budget, warned that the Chancellor’s reduced headroom of £15 billion by 2029/30 leaves the country “more exposed to future bad news”, and criticised the Budget for failing to tackle the worst decade for growth in household incomes on record.
But the poll does change the politics of the reset. A government that can say the public would vote to rejoin by 24 points negotiates from a different position than one that must apologise for Brexit. Voters overall were evenly divided between thinking Britain needed radical change or steady, stable management — and on Europe, at least, the radical option is now the majority one.
For background on the Budget verdict in the same survey, see our report on UK voters saying the Healey Budget leaves them worse off, and on the UK nearing an EU food standards deal. More in our Politics section.
Sources: Lord Ashcroft Polls, “How was the Budget, should we rejoin the EU (and under what conditions), and do we want steady management or radical change?” (https://lordashcroftpolls.com/2026/11/how-was-the-budget-should-we-rejoin-the-eu-and-under-what-conditions-and-do-we-want-steady-management-or-radical-change/); Apex News, “Healey’s ‘risky’ Budget criticised for failing to tackle worst decade for UK growth on record” (https://www.apexnews.com/en/news/healey-s-risky-budget-criticised-for-failing-to-tackle-worst-decade-for-uk-growth-on-record-6f00c8e6261029en_zz).