‘Just 28% expect families to prosper post-Brexit’
THE depth of apprehension in Wales about Brexit is on display in the latest opinion polling which shows only one in four people expect leaving the EU will be positive for them and their family.
The YouGov poll of more than 1,000 Welsh adults, commissioned by Plaid Cymru, found more people expect Brexit to be bad for Wales and the UK than have a positive effect.
Only 35% of people thought Brexit would be positive for the UK, while 44% expected it to be negative.
Twenty-five per cent think leaving the EU will be positive for them and their family, while 36% expect negative consequences.
The most pessimistic attitudes concerned Wales’ future.
Just 28% think Brexit will be positive for this nation. Nearly half (48%) predict a negative outcome.
The findings come in the wake of warnings by major employers – including Airbus – about the damage that could be caused by leaving the EU without an exit deal.
Plaid Cymru Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts said the poll, conducted between August 9 and 13, laid “bare Wales’ belief that leaving the European Union will have a negative effect on our country”.
The Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP added: “The false promises of a postBrexit ‘land of milk and honey’ are increasingly falling apart. According to some reports, so badly is this government handling Brexit we would be lucky to have any milk or honey left come March 2019.
“Plaid Cymru has consistently argued for remaining in the single market and the customs union to safeguard thousands of jobs and vital economic ties. We will not allow the concerns of business owners, NHS staff, farmers and our communities as a whole to fall on deaf ears.
“If the deal struck by the Westminster government will see them lose out, people in Wales must have the right to reject it.”
Former Conservative Assembly leader Andrew RT Davies, one of Wales’ highest-profile champions of Brexit, insisted there was a “brighter, more positive future ahead of us when we leave the European Union”.
He said: “Despite all the scare stories, the positive numbers around the economy – both employment and take-home pay – continue to go in the right direction. And if we reach out for the opportunities that lie ahead then there is a very positive future for Wales.
“But sadly, the Labour-led Government in the Welsh Assembly have obviously led us up many culde-sacs and we have got to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Mr Davies linked the pessimism about Brexit to a “project fear campaign” conducted by “politicians and opinion-formers”.
He said: “They obviously, despite much of the negativity they have tried to portray, have been proved wrong by all the economic numbers that have come out.
“People will continue to propel project fear out there because that’s what their agenda is, and what we have to do is obviously make sure that the positive narrative that the electorate voted for in June 2016 is delivered – and delivered by the Conservatives in government in Westminster.”