Britain’s anti-brexit voters split as June 8 election nears

london» Nearly a year after Britain voted 52 percent to 48 percent to withdraw from the European Union, those on the pro-eu side still think that the idea of leaving the bloc registers somewhere between doltish and disastrous. The Remainers have not enthusiastically embraced the winning side. They are not born-again Brexiteers.

But they are not coalescing around a single party before Britain’s June 8 election. Instead, they’re splitting their support several ways, with a sizable faction even supporting the Remainer-turned-brexiteer prime minister, Theresa May.

Those who backed Brexit, by contrast, are flocking to the Conservatives.

As a result, the Remainers are the invisible man in this election, underscoring just how much May has altered the political landscape since coming to office last summer in the wake of the Brexit vote. The failure of the 48 percent to unify is one of the main reasons May remains on course for victory, even as her Conservative Party slips in the polls.

“Remain voters still think that leaving the EU is by and large a daft idea,” said Marcus Roberts, director of international projects at the Yougov polling agency. But he said the splintering can be explained in part by the original Brexit tribes of Leavers and Remainers having morphed into new categories: those who back their sides even more strongly and those who have flipped to the Brexit camp, which he calls Releavers.

He said that nearly half of those who voted to remain in the EU — the Re-leavers — now just want to make the best of an undesirable situation. For some, that means voting for the Conservatives, whose leader has signaled a hard break with Europe but is viewed by many voters as the best person to negotiate the upcoming divorce talks.

“It is very British to get on with it and make do with the situation,” said Roberts, who noted that May herself was a Remainer but quickly shifted gears.