Brexit fears recede as EU remain campaign gains favour, poll says

The campaign to keep the United Kingdom within the European Union has taken an 18 percentage-point lead over the drive for it to leave, helping lever sterling higher against the euro and US dollar, a new survey has showed.

At 2.01pm, sterling was up 0.98% to €1.2905, and up 0.58% to $1.4547.

Ipsos Mori’s Political Monitor for May said 55% of 1002 people surveyed wanted UK to remain in the EU, against 37% wanting it to leave. Eight percent were either undecided or would not vote.

In April, the survey revealed 49% wanted the UK to remain in the single-currency bloc, while 39 were for it leaving and 12 were undecided.

Yesterday, a Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said its latest survey of fund managers found 71% believed a UK vote in favour of Brexit was either unlikely, or not at all likely.

Betfair said separately today that the odds of a British vote to remain part of the EU was up to 76% on Wednesday, from 73% on Monday and around 70% for the two preceding weeks, Reuters reported.

Ipsos Mori further added that with just weeks until the 23 June referendum, 49% of respondents said Britain’s economy worsen over the next five years if Brexit became reality, versus 26% who said it would be better 15% who claimed it would make no difference.

“When asked about Britain’s economy over the next ten to twenty years however two in five (39%) think it would be better outside the EU compared with 35% who say it would be worse (11% say Brexit would make no difference,” Ipsos Mori said in a statement.

Also on Wednesday, the Brexit binary from spread betting group IG returned to its 75%, in favour of the 'remain' vote, having ticked down to 72% recently.

"Today’s poll is unlikely to change that," said market analyst Chris Beauchamp. "Rallies in support for Brexit have been as brief as the British summer, fading rapidly as the next burst of ‘Project Fear’ pushes more people towards voting for the status quo."