Only 18 percent of British voters believe Keir Starmer''s pledges on sticking to Brexit
The dismal poll for Labour comes after Sir Keir Starmer spent years trying to distance himself from the Remainer label.
Less than one in five voters actually believe in Sir Keir Starmer's position on Brexit and the European Union, according to new bombshell polling.
The astonishing results show that the Labour leader has failed to persuade voters that he will stick to Britain's decision to leave the EU. This is despite the opposition leader spending years trying to break with his Remainer past, which included advocating for a second referendum.
Since taking over the party, Sir Keir has ditched pledges to support EU free movement and repeatedly ruled out any return to the single market or customs union.
The polling, conducted for Politico by the More in Common think tank, found that only 18 percent of voters believe the party leader's actual position on EU-UK relations, which is fostering a closer relationship with the bloc but remaining outside its single market and customs union.
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More than one in 10 voters (11 percent) thought he would take Britain back into the single market while 19 percent think he will make the UK rejoin the bloc entirely.
Despite the public's lack of belief or knowledge around Sir Keir's Brexit position, he still maintains a healthy poll lead over Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party, less than a month before the election on July 4.
Several leading Remainers expect Sir Keir to flip-flop on his Brexiteer claims following an election victory.
Mike Galsworthy, chair of the European Movement UK, which campaigns for a closer relationship with the EU, told POLITICO: "Everyone currently understands why Labour has to be cautious in a general election. However, once in power, responsibilities change entirely and the new government’s focus must be to serve the people and the country.
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"As far as Labour’s base, the youth of this country, businesses large and small, and the now pro-European population at large is concerned, Labour cannot simply ignore that vast pro-European base that backed them to win power.
"Yes, there will be expectations — and try as they might to ignore it, those expectations will be firmly there."
There is also pressure inside the Labour Party, with London Mayor Sadiq Khan pledging to end what he called a “vow of silence” over Brexit.
Commentator Piers Morgan similarly remarked that a debate on Brexit was "missing" from the election campaign.
Discussing the ITV debate between Sir Keir and Mr Sunak on Tuesday, Mr Morgan told the BBC: “The great unmentionable in all this is Brexit. Nobody is talking about Brexit."
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage, who announced this week that he will run to become an MP, told LBC that the Brexit negotiations were a "complete failure" and called for the Northern Ireland protocol to be torn up in the next parliament.
