SHOCK new polling suggests as many as 112 Leave-backing Westminster constituencies would now vote Remain.
Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip and Michael Gove’s Surrey Heath seats were among those where the voters have seemingly changed their minds on Brexit.
The analysis, obtained by a Sunday newspaper, also suggests that Banff and Buchan, the one Scottish constituency believed to have backed leaving the EU in the 2016 referendum, would now switch to Remain.
The figures were produced by consumer analytics company Focaldata, drawing on YouGov polls of 15,000 people.
They found that 112 out of the 632 seats in England, Scotland and Wales had switched from Leave to Remain since the referendum. The model did not look at the 18 constituencies in Northern Ireland.
Under the Focaldata model, 341 constituencies now have a Remain majority, up from 229 in 2016.
The analysis, conducted for the Best for Britain campaign for a second referendum and the Hope Not Hate campaign against racism, puts Remain on 53% support, against 47% backing Leave.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable, who spoke at a rally of People’s Vote supporters in Bristol on Saturday, said it was time for a second vote on the UK’s membership of the EU.
He said: “Whether someone voted to leave or stay in the EU in 2016, nearly everyone is disillusioned by the mess the Conservatives have made of Brexit.
“This research is yet more compelling evidence that the British people must be given the final say on any – or no – Brexit deal. The shallow argument against giving the people their say diminishes towards nothingness with every passing day.”
Tory MP for Totnes Sarah Wollaston agreed. She told the rally: “To proceed with Brexit without a People’s Vote would be like a surgeon carrying out an amputation having sought their patient’s consent two years beforehand without either of them knowing whether they were going to lose a few toes or their whole leg.
“Informed consent to Brexit can only happen once people know the final deal – if any – and have clear information about the risks as well as any benefits.”
Pro-Brexit Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg played down the significance of polls. “Most of the polls said people would vote to remain in the EU in 2016, but when people got to the ballot booth they voted to leave,” he told Sky News.
“The votes that matter are the votes cast in genuine elections. Opinion polls come up with a whole range of answers and they differ from day to day, but elections themselves are authoritative.”
Meanwhile, there have been warnings of a hike in food prices if the UK crashes out of Europe with a deal. Supermarket giants say the cost of a weekly food shop could rise by 12%.
In briefings to the Treasury, executives from the big four supermarkets said the biggest tariffs on EU imports would include cheese, up by 44%, beef by 40% and chicken by 20%.
“It’s complete nonsense that Brexit supporters say we could, without any damage, go to WTO most-favoured-nation tariffs,” a supermarket chairman told another Sunday newspaper.
“It’s dreadful. There will be hold-ups at the border and that will make it impossible to take things out of the ground in Spain this morning and get them onto the shelves in two days’ time.
“This is so serious we’re talking about civil unrest on the streets. Within two weeks of no deal this will become a very different country.”
The supermarket boss’s warning came as SNP health spokeswoman Dr Philippa Whitford expressed fears about the impact of a no-deal Brexit on the NHS in Scotland.
She said news that £2 billion worth of NHS England contracts are being handed over to Virgin Care Services would pave the way for a public-procurement power grab over services north of the Border.
“The news we’ve seen this week of £2bn worth of NHS England contracts being handed over to a single private firm sets a dangerous precedent, and last month’s report by MPs which described the outsourcing of primary care services in England to Capita as a ‘complete mess and a shambles’ shows exactly what the Tories would do to our NHS in Scotland given half a chance with the procurement powers they have grabbed from Scotland.”
She added: “With the Tories in charge of procurement laws and policy, the Scottish Parliament and its voters would lose control over how our key public services are delivered with the future real threat of being opened up to profiteering firms from across the Atlantic.”
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