UK public against exiting EU without deal: poll

[LONDON] British people are against the prime minister's plans to leave the European Union without a deal if parliament rejects the agreement struck with Brussels, according to a new poll released on Tuesday by the Independent.

Last month, Theresa May's government agreed to give lawmakers a vote on the final Brexit deal before it is concluded with Brussels.

However they warned that if parliament rejected the terms of the final deal, Britain would still leave the bloc and revert to World Trade Organization rules to trade with the EU.

But only 25 per cent of British people would support leaving the EU "with no set future relations in place," according to a BMG Research poll commissioned by the daily newspaper The Independent which surveyed 1,576 people online.

A total of 56 per cent favoured other options at odds with Mrs May's plans.

Among those, 27 per cent said Mrs May should try to renegotiate a deal, 15 per cent said Britain should stay in the EU on existing terms and 14 per cent said Britain should stay in on new terms that the government should try to negotiate.

Mrs May's "no deal is better than a bad deal" approach has received strong criticism.

Former prime minister John Major said last week that exiting the EU without a deal would be "the worst possible outcome".

And the House of Lords is expected to vote for an amendment to the Brexit bill to give parliament a vote on the final withdrawal deal and any future ties with the EU.

If the amendment goes through, it would further delay the start of the Brexit process.

Mrs May is under pressure to pass the bill quickly to meet her deadline of triggering Article 50, which starts the divorce proceedings with the bloc, by the end of March.

AFP