The Scottish Mail on Sunday

Half of voters fear May is doing bad job

- By Glen Owen POLITICAL CORRESPOND­ENT

THERESA MAY is mishandlin­g the Brexit negotiatio­ns and voters fear they will be worse off as a result, an exclusive Mail on Sunday poll has found.

Voters are split down the middle over whether we should still leave the EU, but are keen for Mrs May to ignore the hardliners in her party by pursuing a soft Brexit.

And while Jeremy Corbyn maintains Labour’s poll lead, neither of the frontrunne­rs to replace Mrs May – David Davis or Boris Johnson – would beat him if an Election was held tomorrow.

The poll by Survation, the only company to correctly predict last month’s Election result, finds that just 18 per cent of voters think the Government is handling Brexit well, compared with 45 per cent who think the opposite.

And while the Leave/Remain split is exactly 50-50, concerns are creeping in among voters about the complexity and cost of Brexit: only 18 per cent of people think they will be financiall­y better off as a result of the vote to leave, compared with 39 per cent who think they will be in a worse position.

When asked if Brexit had been more ‘problemati­c’ than they had expected, 43 per cent agreed and just 12 per cent disagreed.

By a margin of two to one – 65 per cent to 35 per cent – voters disagree with Mrs May that leaving the EU without a deal is better than securing a ‘bad’ deal. In total, 53 per cent would prefer a soft Brexit – retaining a close associatio­n with the EU’s trading bloc – while 47 per cent would not.

Mr Corbyn is still enjoying his post-Election honeymoon, with Labour on 41 per cent – two points ahead of the Tories. He also enjoys a rating of 45 per cent when voters are asked who would make the best PM. Mrs May scored 55 per cent.

And while 53 per cent think Mrs May should resign, the figure reverses among Tory voters worried about a destabilis­ing leadership contest. Just 17 per cent of Conservati­ve voters want her to step down. Survation questioned 1,024 people on Friday and Saturday.

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