Majority of Brits including Remainers now back a ‘hard’ Brexit with full border controls, says study

NEARLY SEVEN in ten voters back a “Hard” Brexit with full border controls – a staggering survey claims.

The London School of Economics yesterday said the British public had “accepted” the decision to leave the EU.

Some 68 per cent of the public back a so-called Hard Brexit – modest tariffs, small contributions to Brussels – over a Soft one – free movement and ongoing budget payments.

And more than half of those who voted Remain a year ago support taking back control of our borders – and leaving the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.

Asked about a divorce payment, nearly 54.7 per cent of Remain voters back paying nothing almost identical to the 56.9 per cent of Leave voters.

Nearly 4,000 people were presented with various Brexit scenarios by LSE and Oxford University.

LSE associate professor Thomas J Leeper told the Sun: “We presented people a range of options and what you might have thought Remain voters would have preferred staying as close to the status quo as possible.

“But what we have found is that Remain voters are falling towards being more pro-Brexit than may otherwise have been expected.”

He added: “This suggests that by and large the British public has accepted the Brexit result and is prepared for some kind of deal.”

The research also found that Remain voters felt that preserving free movement and full access to the single market wouldn’t respect last year’s EU Referendum result.

Labour, SNP, Plaid Cymru and Lib Dem voters all prefer Soft Brexit to No Deal – but only by a 60-40 split.

While both Leave and Remain voters object to the idea of paying £12 billion a year for some degree of access to the single market post-Brexit, they were indifferent to £6 billion a year and supported £1 billion a year.

On almost all scenarios there was a mere 5 per cent difference between the two camps.

Tory backbencher Jacob Rees Mogg told the Sun: “The British people have a love of democracy the metropolitan elite can’t cope with.”