Is Brexit no longer an important issue to the public?

Although around 60% of the population support rejoining the EU in polling, there is a counter-claim to this, also based on polls: that the issue is no longer a high priority for the public. This claim is about salience polling: polls where people are asked to rank their top issues in order of importance.

Brexit has slid down the rankings in recent years - and this is used to claim that the public have ‘moved on’ from Brexit and want to focus only on the economy and the cost of living crisis.

There are some problems with this. If we look at an example poll from the 2024 general election, ‘Britain leaving the EU’ ranks in joint 9th place out of the issues asked about – right next to tax, education and defence (all on 13–14%). Are we to believe, according to this logic, that the issues of tax, education and defence are unimportant to the public?

Brexit is part of the cost of living crisis

The more significant problem is the idea that ‘the economy’ is separate from Brexit. This is not true, and importantly the public at large does not believe it to be true either. Brexit is central to the UK’s current economic situation and to the cost of living.

Brexit is central to the UK's economic problems and the cost of living

London School of Economics researchers found that Brexit added £5.8 billion to UK food bills over two years. The public believes that Brexit has increased the cost of living, with even Leave voters agreeing with this proposition by 57%.

Given this, the statement that voters care about the economy more than they care about the EU does not make sense: they care about the economy, and the economy has been affected by leaving the EU.

We could also add the effects that Brexit has had across the other issues listed, such as health (staff shortages), the environment (no longer protected by EU regulations) and much more.

In addition, when asked more straightforwardly whether or not Brexit should have been one of the main issues in the general election campaign, 58% said that it should have been.

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