Brexit issue made Britons angrier about politics and society
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Britons have become “angrier about politics and society” since the 2016 EU referendum, making the U.K. feel “deeply divided and uneasy with itself,” according to a new survey by the PR agency Edelman.
“We are a disunited Kingdom: a country that is seen as increasingly unfair, less tolerant and headed in the wrong direction,” Ed Williams, Edelman’s U.K. and Ireland chief executive and EMEA vice chairman, said in a statement published Monday.
“Brexit has exposed fractures that have split families and divided friends, made us meaner and angrier as a society, and stoked fears of violent protest and civil disorder,” Williams added, with reference to the 40 percent of respondents claiming they think others are more likely to take part in violent protests.
A U.K. supplement to the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, which will be published in full Tuesday, found that 69 percent of British nationals are “angrier about politics and society since the referendum,” prompting one in six Britons to “have fallen out with relatives or friends over the issue of leaving the EU.”
The U.K. is set to leave the bloc on March 29, but it remains unclear whether Prime Minister Theresa May will be able to get her Brexit deal through parliament.
In the Edelman survey, one in five believe the U.K. government “had done a good job negotiating” the country’s departure from the bloc. Among Leave voters, 43 percent said they are “unhappy” with “the direction of national travel,” while 82 percent of self-proclaimed Remainers feel the same way, the statement reads.
Around two-thirds (65 percent) of respondents said they feel Britain is “on the wrong track,” with six in 10 respondents reckoning that Brexit is the biggest challenge facing U.K. businesses.
Among Conservative Party voters, around 60 percent believe the country is heading in the right direction, versus just 20 percent of opposition Labour-leaning respondents.
