Support for EU membership in a referendum context

Executive Summary

This report presents results of a public opinion survey of 4,368 adults, carried out by YouGov on behalf of Best for Britain in September 2025.

Previous Best for Britain research, published in April 2026, found that around half (53%) of the British public supported the UK becoming a full member of the European Union, compared to around a third (32%) who were opposed. The original survey measured support for EU membership ‘in principle’, by asking respondents whether they somewhat/strongly supported or opposed EU membership. The results presented in this report sought to answer the questions: does overall support for EU membership reduce when the same question is presented in a referendum context? Are respondents who say they only ‘somewhat’ support EU membership in principle likely to break against voting for EU membership in a referendum context? How much support, or opposition, is there to revisit the question of EU membership?

The headline result is clear: there is no statistical difference between voters’ support for EU membership ‘in principle’ and when framed in a referendum context. Half of voters (53%) say they support EU membership in principle, and half of voters (51%) say they would vote for EU membership in a referendum. Likewise, three in ten voters (32%) say they oppose EU membership in principle, and three in ten (28%) say they would vote against EU membership in a referendum.

The consistency between voter responses ‘in principle’ and in a referendum context holds across all party political crossbreaks. The results also suggest that respondents who only ‘somewhat support’ membership of the EU in principle would support EU membership in a referendum context.
On the question of when a referendum on UK membership of the EU should take place, voters lean towards shorter time frames: around half would support a referendum taking place over the next two to five years. As the posited time frame for a referendum moves out beyond a decade and further into the future, the proportion of ‘Don’t know’ responses increases.

Responses to all questions concerning the UK’s relationship with the EU continue to track party political voting intention. Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green Supporters are overwhelmingly in favour of all measures to bring about a closer UK-EU relationship. They are joined by around two in five Conservative Supporters and one in five Reform UK Supporters. That includes, as results of this survey show, supporting UK membership of the EU in a referendum.