Majority Still Unaware of Brexit and its Global Impact

Brexit took place on the 31st of January 2020, this was when Britain officially exited from the European Union(EU) making it an organization of 28 countries to that of 27 countries. The term ‘Brexit’ consists of two main words are Britain and Exit, which summarises the whole Brexit deal.

Brexit was first proposed in 2016, the referendum was held in June 2016. 52% of the country voted for Britain’s exit from the EU. Meanwhile, 48% voted for Britain to remain with the EU. Britain officially exited the EU at the start of 2020.

Real Research conducted a public poll to find out the overall perception of the public with respect to Brexit. Our insights will showcase the public’s thoughts on the impact of Brexit on a global scale. Furthermore, it also tells us what the people believe Britain should focus on most now that it has exited the EU.

Highlights

• Over 45% of the respondents are unfamiliar with Brexit.
• 5% said that if given the chance to vote in the 2016 referendum, they would agree.
• Over 50% said that they would choose to take the Brexit deal.
• Respondents chose Education and Tariffs as the most affected sectors after Britain’s exit.

Only 12.8% of the Responses say That They are Fully Aware of Brexit

From a total of 500,000 respondents, 85.2% of the responses came from those identifying as ‘Male’ while the remaining 14.8% of the responses came from those identifying as ‘Female’. As for the age group, almost half of the responses came from those between the ages of 19-29.

Participants in this survey came from different parts of the world. The highest of which came from the continent of Asia. Over 80% came from South Asia, the highest responses came from India, consisting of around 51.95%. Following Asia, the next biggest contributor was Russia.

Out of the 500,000 responses, it seems that 45.4% said that they are unfamiliar with Brexit. The high number for this could be due to the majority of the responses coming from Asia. However, 27.1% said they knew of Brexit but really didn’t know what it was about. Moreover,  14.7% said that they have an idea but don’t know the details. That leaves a total of only 12.8% of the respondents who know what Brexit is exactly.

It is interesting that even though most of the responses came from Asia, there are still people who are aware of Brexit. This shows that some parts of the world recognize that Brexit could have global consequences. Also, back when the referendum was first passed, many polls held within the United Kingdom showed that most people in the country cast votes without actually understanding what they were voting for. This makes it seem as though the public has become less and less interested in political affairs as a whole.

22.2% Said They Would Disagree With the Original Referendum Proposed in 2016

Upon asking the respondents what they would choose given that they had a chance to vote in the referendum back in 2016, an astounding 55.5% said that they would ‘Agree’. While 22.2% said they would ‘Disagree’ and 22.3% said that they were ‘Unsure’.

This could mean that the majority feel that not much changed after Brexit, hence, most people agreed. Either that or perhaps they felt the consequences following Brexit weren’t caused by Brexit but by some external force such as the pandemic.

When asked what decision they’d make if they could steer the direction of Brexit, the respondents had to choose from three options. Out of which, the highest number of responses went to ‘The Brexit Deal: Withdrawal from the EU after agreement with the EU’. This option received 50.9% of the responses, over half of the total.

The next, with 33.9% went to the ‘No Brexit: Remain in the EU’ option. It seems that even though a majority wanted Britain to exit the EU, another large group still wished for it to stay with the EU, just like the first round of referendum votes in 2016. It seems the public is not entirely ready for the paradigm shift that would follow Britain’s exit, a big chunk of the population was not looking forward to this change.

The third option got 15.2%, which was for the option of ‘No-Deal Brexit: Withdrawal from the EU without agreement with the EU. This is understandable as not a lot of the respondents would be keen on seeing a disagreement between Britain and the EU. Though some could still deem some strife as a necessity to a greater end.

32.3% say Nothing Changed, They Believe Brexit Will Cause no Major Impact Globally

Out of the total responses, it seems we received an interestingly diverse point of view with this question. Do you think Brexit will have a negative impact globally? All three options lie in the 30% area. Although the ‘Yes’ did receive the highest number of votes at 37.7%. It seems most respondents believe that Brexit would cause a negative impact globally.

30% said that they didn’t think Brexit would cause any negative impact. Leaving 32.3% of the respondents choosing ‘It will be similar to before Brexit’ as their preferred choice. This could mean that most people didn’t see any dramatic or even small changes following Brexit.

This could be due to the fact that negative consequences were swept away under global events. Moreover, it could also simply be that Britain didn’t yet have a chance to implement any new changes. Either way, a huge group of people doesn’t seem to find any sort of impact since then.

What Sectors Will be Affected Most?

Respondents believe that the sectors to see the greatest effect following Brexit would be the Tariff and Education sector. This was closely followed by Cross-Border payments, which would be very likely if Britain has to draw up trade agreements with EU nations upon its exit.

The next set of concerns according to the participants in the survey are Financial services and International Politics amongst Others. When Britain leaves the European Union it leaves behind old agreements and many advantages that are only accessible by members of the European Union.

Among these perks were affordable education, easy travel, financial support, cheaper trade rates, and much more. While Britain might see some perks of its own from exiting the European Union, it still has a lot of advantages it will have to give up.

Respondents chose two reasons with 28% each, as the greatest contributors to Brexit. These were, ‘Lack of knowledge about Brexit’ and ‘The political decision made by the British Government’. Britain interviewed its citizens many times after Brexit was first proposed and it was quite clear that there was a general lack of knowledge about Brexit.

‘The British character’ option received 18% of the total votes. For this question, we see that the ‘Others’ option received more votes than the ‘Dissension with EU’ option. This is possible because most respondents are aware of the fact that Britain’s decision to exit the EU was Britain’s decision alone.

Majority Responses say UK Should Focus on Free Trade Agreements with EU Nations

On the question of who would be the most vulnerable to the consequences of Brexit, ‘Foreign laborers’ came up on top. This was closely followed by ‘Immigrants with UK citizenship’ and ‘International students.

The next on the vulnerability list was ‘Low-Income people with UK citizenship, followed by ‘The middle class with UK citizenship’. These are not surprising statistics considering the answers to the two questions above.

Finally, when asked what the UK government should be focusing on after Brexit, the highest number of votes went to gaining ‘Free trade agreements with EU nations’. A solid answer as this is one of the biggest privileges the country lost upon its exit from the European Union.

The next greatest focus, respondents feel, should be to ‘Establishing new trade agreements with Non-EU nations’. This was followed by ‘Withdrawal from the EU customs union. Both valid options now that the United Kingdom has already taken the first step and has exited the EU.

Finally, came ‘Implement new immigration policy to the UK’ this would be a great motion on the government’s part as it will help those who went left vulnerable to Brexit consequences. ‘Restoration of identity as UK citizens instead of the EU came dead last, even after the ‘Others’ option.

Conclusion

From the collected data we can conclude that the majority of the public is not fully aware of what Brexit really is or the full consequences of the action. However, it is certain some recognized the possibility of negative global consequences following Brexit.

The UK has left the European Union along with much of the perks it enjoyed by being a part of it. They are yet to make new policies or amend their current ones, especially since some of their population has been left vulnerable by the decision is made. We will perhaps see more of Britain’s plans in the future once the pandemic has settled down.