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Some UK regions want to stay in EU: Polls

EU and British flags (file photo)

Most people in certain regions of the UK now prefer to remain part of the European Union despite the Brexit referendum in June, opinion surveys show.  

According to surveys by some British newspapers, people in parts of the UK that voted overwhelmingly for Brexit now have an opposite opinion.

On Saturday, the Wolverhampton-based Express and Star newspaper published a poll which shows 60 percent of respondents would now vote to stay in the EU.

The Express and Star, which became the fourth outlet to publish results showing a complete u-turn in public opinion, surveyed 10,000 readers.

In March, the paper asked readers to fill out a questionnaire and the results found that 80 percent would vote to leave the EU.

Three other regional newspapers in the North East and the West Midlands have recently published similar findings.

On December 10, two other newspapers, The Hartlepool Mail and Sunderland Echo, published reports showing most people preferred to stay in the EU.

In June, however, 61 percent of residents in Hartlepool and 60 percent in Sunderland favored Brexit.

Also in December, the Newcastle Chronicle declared “the North East now wants to stay in the EU” due to the fact that most respondents said they would now vote to remain.

British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves at the end of a European Union Summit held at the EU Council building in Brussels on December 15, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

According to most national polls, however, "regrexit" and "Bregret" have been overstated, with the majority of people saying they are happy with the way they voted.

"I would be very skeptical of the numbers," said Matt Singh, an election and opinion polling analyst and founder of the website Number Cruncher Politics.

"It is possible that different areas behaved differently, but the North East and West Midlands, very leave-y sort of areas, showing something that is more remain than the national polls are showing does seem pretty odd. The likeliest explanation is that they've all been thrown off by the same thing."

Prime Minister Theresa May has vowed to trigger Article 50 -- the step required to officially begin the Brexit negotiations, by March next year. Her critics, however, accuse her of having no precise plan to start the negotiations.


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