In Snap Elections Britons Will Choose Between Hard and Soft Brexit

• 06.07.2017, 21:53
•  Europe,  World

IBTimes UK

The United Kingdom will hold snap parliamentary elections on June 8. At the beginning of the campaign experts predicted that the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Theresa May, will win this election quite easily, but as the campaign shows, it isn’t excluded that the  election results can be quite different. 

According to the recent survey of Ipsos MORI, the British Prime Minister's personal rating has fallen since May. Only 43% of Britons supports May and it is 12% less than the time, when she came to this position last year. Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s rating increased by 6% to 35. Moreover, the gap between the Conservative and Labor parties, according to polls, is not so big. Thus, according to Survation’s data, it is 1% and according to YouGov’s data – 4%.

Such a change in campaign moods of Britons is primarily conditioned by two factors. The first factor is the candidates position about Brexit: some of Britons have been already disappointed in their decision to withdraw from the EU and therefore prefer Corbyn’s soft Brexit. They hope that in case of Corbyn’s victory, the process of withdrawing from the EU will be smoother, and the UK will keep its important ties with the EU, which in case of hard Brexit promised by May is unlikely to succeed. On the other hand the change in voter moods was also affected by the terrorist acts that took place during the last week in the country. Many voters blame May in the country's security problems, as she had been the Interior Minister before she took the post of the Prime Minister: it was May's decision to drop the number of the British police by about 20 percent.  

However, it should be noted that, although Corbyn’s rating rises, it is unlikely that he will win the elections. According to analysts, Theresa May will be re-elected as Prime Minister, but she will hardly be able to keep the 17 percent vote advantage that inherited from David Cameron.