The UK could be set to leave the EU, according to the result of a recent poll announced this weekend.
Conducted on behalf of the Mail on Sunday, the Survation poll took place over the September 3-4.
Survation asked respondents the new proposed ballot paper question and asked them how they would vote if the referendum was held today.
The New EU Referendum Question
“Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?”
Result
- Remain a member of the European Union – 40%
- Leave the European Union – 43%
- Undecided – 17%
Excluding undecided voters, the results were:
- Leave the European Union 51%*
- Remain a member of the European Union 49%*
Survation’s previous EU referendum poll, conducted between June 29 and July 6 using the same methodology and a similar but not identical question wording with a 5000 sample size (ex undecided voters) produced a 54% “Yes” (remain) and a 45% No (leave) result.
Impact for Irish farmers
A British exit from the EU would be ‘unambiguously’ bad from the perspective of both Irish producers and consumers, according to Professor Alan Matthews of Trinity College Dublin.
According to Matthews, who appeared before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs on the issue, the trade links today in the agri-food sector between the UK and Ireland are more important than for any other EU country.
Ireland, he said imports 51% of its total agri-food imports from the UK, while the UK also takes 51% of its total agri-food exports.
These are also much higher proportions than for Irish manufacturing, he said and British exit from the EU (Brexit) could potentially lead to significant disruption of this trade.
Matthews told the committee members much would depend on the nature of the trade relationship put in place between the UK and the EU post-Brexit.
