Major sovereignty poll :  The people want their government to be wholly sovereign

“When politicians do not match the needs of the people, new ones can and will replace them,” says Jacob Rees-Mogg

Truly astonishing and uplifting results were extremely surprising to the polls’ originator

Yesterday evening the results of a new and very large poll were published and were first revealed on Jacob Rees-Mogg’s ‘State of the Nation’ show on GB News.  Immediately afterwards, Stand for Our Sovereignty spoke exclusively to the author of the poll, Dr Richard Johnson, a respected politics academic at Queen Mary University of London, who provided detailed information for Stand for Our Sovereignty’s readers.

The results could not be better, as we shall show below

Firstly, we asked Dr Johnson why he commissioned the poll from YouGov. After all, this was a large undertaking. The sample size was far larger than usual, totalling 4,534 people across the country. His answer was that he found recent polls suggesting support for Brexit had tumbled to around 30-35% to be difficult to believe, and he wanted to delve deeper.  This is particularly timely, coming days after the Sunday Times had published a poll showing just this. 

It is this last point which makes this poll unique. Nowhere does it use the ‘Brexit’ word. Instead it asks what people feel about where control should lie.  The slogan most people remember when casting their minds back to the Referendum in 2016 is of course “Take Back Control”.  It is therefore this question of control, expressed as sovereignty over policy decision-making, that is the focus of the entire survey.

The question

‘Putting aside your views of the current government and thinking about UK governments in general, how do you think the following issues should be decided in Britain?’

There were 20 policies in total and four possible answers:

1. This policy should be decided by UK governments alone
2. UK governments should voluntarily seek, but not be bound by, agreements with other countries on this policy
3. UK governments should be required to follow decisions made by international institutions on this policy
4. Don’t know

The astonishing results

On every policy asked about, the most popular answer was “This policy should be decided by UK governments alone”. This applies across those of all party affiliations and – amazingly – across the Brexit/Remain divide.

Naturally there were differences in the responses based on people’s political inclinations. The Greens were the outliers, as might be expected, followed by the LibDems.  Nevertheless, in each case the first answer – ‘UK government alone’, or full sovereignty – was the most popular answer for every single policy.

In terms of absolute majorities, i.e. where a response received over 50% votes overall, this was the case in 17 out of the 20 policies, with the exceptions being AI, data regulation, and trade. For these three, the first answer was still the most popular, but was less than 50%.

Leave or Remain – This mattered very little in these poll results

Surprisingly, in most answers (15), even Remain voters gave majority support to ‘UK government alone’. For Leave voters this applied to all 20.  Stand for our Sovereignty has always been independent, seeking to represent all voters whatever their political persuasions and regardless of their decision to Leave or to Remain in the 2016 Referendum.

The results of this poll clearly vindicate this stance. And at this point we should reiterate that we welcome new Members whatever their political views and whichever way they voted in the EU Referendum. The most important thing is to build the Membership as quickly as possible to give us a louder voice, so we urge you to join now, if you haven’t already done so!

Results in detail

We are grateful to Dr Johnson, of the Department of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London and author of this poll, for his permission to use the detail he gave us, to better inform readers.

1. Summary – all policies – ‘UK government alone’ as first choice

It is worth noting that for none of the above policies would it be possible for the UK government to act alone, if the UK were a Member of the European Union. Indeed Sir Keir’s current ‘Re-set’ agreements with the EU, arising from his Summit, will all negate the British people’s desired response as shown in this poll.

2.  The most popular policies for the ‘UK government alone’ decision in certain voter groups

2.1 Reform UK

• Refusing border entry to citizens of other countries who have been in prison for a year or more : 89%
• Removing VAT on certain products, such as fuel and household goods, to make them cheaper : 88%
• Giving preference to British businesses (‘Buy British’) when awarding Government contracts : 86%

2.2 Labour

• Nationalising the railways : 80%
• Establishing a publicly owned energy company : 71%
• Removing VAT on certain products, such as fuel and household goods, to make them cheaper : 70%

2.3 Conservatives

• Determining UK food standards : 85%
• Immigration rules : 84%
• Refusing border entry to citizens of other countries who have been in prison for a year or more :  84%

2.4 LibDems

• Nationalising the railways : 75%
• Establishing a publicly owned energy company : 71%
• Giving subsidies, tax incentives, or loans to incentivise businesses to operate outside of London/S.E. : 70%

2.5  Greens

• Nationalising the railways : 73%
• Establishing a publicly owned energy company : 68%
• Removing VAT on certain products, such as fuel and household goods, to make them cheaper : 66%

3.  The most popular policies for the ‘UK government alone’ decision by Leave / Remain voters

3.1 Remain voters

• Nationalising the railways : 78%
• Removing VAT on certain products, such as fuel and household goods, to make them cheaper : 72%
• Establishing a publicly owned energy company : 69%

3.2 Leave voters

• Refusing border entry to citizens of other countries who have been in prison for a year or more : 86%
• Immigration rules : 82%
• Giving preference to British businesses (‘Buy British’) when awarding Government  : 82%

COMMENTS

We are of course delighted with the overall results of Dr Johnson’s YouGov poll. What surprised us, however, is the apparent popularity of nationalisation of the railways and the establishment of a publicly-owned energy company.  We had no idea these policies were so popular.

On the positive side, this poll proves conclusively that there was a pressing need for an organisation like ours to form and to begin actions to slow down, hinder and potentially reverse the current government’s policies in certain areas.  The vast majority of the public, of all persuasions, seem certain of their wish to see government acting in the interests of the British people, with no outside interference.

Given this is the case, we must take this opportunity once again to urge readers to join Stand for Our Sovereignty. It is only by having large numbers that we will have a sufficiently powerful voice, and some funds with which to take on the government. Standard Membership costs the equivalent of 3p per day – a small price to pay and yet if thousands join we will have the resources to bring about some of the changes that so many apparently seek. Thank you, from the Stand for Our Sovereignty team.