Exclusive research from The Share Centre, with responses from over 1,500 personal investors, reveals that an increasing number of people would change their vote if the EU referendum was held again today knowing what they know now. In fact, nearly 8% of personal investors would switch their vote. The real surprise though is that despite the continued uncertainty surrounding the final Brexit agreement, more than double the proportion would switch from Remain to now vote Leave (5%) than would switch from Leave to Remain (2%). This shift could be related to the performance of the market which has risen steadily since the EU Referendum result and personal investors may therefore feel more confident that their investments would not suffer as much as perhaps they had anticipated.
The analysis also reveals that personal investors have suffered a dramatic loss in confidence in Theresa May’s ability to negotiate a good Brexit deal. At present, less than one in five (19%) have confidence in the Prime Minister when asked about her ability to deliver a strong Brexit – a number which has significantly fallen from 80% immediately after the referendum and 66% in July of 2017 when The Share Centre previously posed the same question to personal investors.
In regards to the ongoing negotiations, personal investors were evenly split on whether the Government should be negotiating to stay in a Customs Union arrangement. However, interestingly, nearly two thirds (63%) believe that this would not satisfy the overall result of the referendum. Furthermore, investors were evenly split on whether having a Customs Union arrangement will or will not have a negative impact on the economy, with as many investors believing other trade deals will outweigh any negative impact as compared to those who believe the negative impacts of failing to negotiate such an arrangement will dominate.
