British people now have more confidence in the EU than Westminster

The latest and greatest Brexit twist is that people in Britain now have more confidence in the EU than the UK parliament.

The World Values Survey (WVS) found that from 2017 to 2021, the proportion of people saying they had confidence in parliament has fallen by 10 percentage points to 22 per cent while there has been a seven percentage point rise in confidence in the EU, to 39 per cent.

Only 24 per cent of people said they were “happy” that the UK voted to quit the EU while 49 per cent said they were disappointed.

The findings also show the UK has joined the ranks of countries least likely to have confidence in government and parliament – and is now behind France, Germany, Australia, Iran and China.

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“Confidence in parliament has halved since 1990,” said Prof Bobby Duffy, the director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, which analysed the figures.

“We’re among the least likely of more than 20 countries in the study to have confidence in the government; confidence in the police has fallen sharply, particularly in London; and only Egypt has less trust in their press.”

Brexit really is the gift that keeps on giving...

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