UK poll: Pro-EU party surges in popularity

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) - The U.K.'s pro-EU Liberal Democrats (Lib-Dems) party would win if a general election was held tomorrow, according to a recent poll.

The party, which has defended the idea that the country should remain an EU member, will come out from a possible election as the first party, a YouGov survey for British daily The Times suggested.

The Lib Dems received 20% of votes in last week’s European elections to increase their seats in the European Parliament to 16 from their previous lone seat.

The Eurosceptic Brexit Party, which advocates a U.K. departure from the bloc, received 32% of votes to win 29 seats.

The pro-Remain Lib Dems would receive 24% of the votes in case of a general election, according to the poll.

The poll also suggested that support for the Brexit Party would drop to 22% in a general election.

It also predicted that neither Labour nor the Conservative party would come out on top in a general election, as they would receive around 19% of votes.

A general election is seen as one alternative in the drive to break the impasse over Brexit.

The deadlock has reached a new stage after the resignation last week by Prime Minister Theresa May after she failed to receive sufficient support from the House of Commons for her Brexit deal negotiated with the EU.

A confirmatory referendum on the final deal is another option to resolve the issue of Brexit.

However, as the leadership for the Conservative Party will be the main political agenda for the coming weeks, some candidates, including former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, are in favor of leaving the EU on the October 31 deadline regardless of a deal being ratified by then or not.

Pro-Remain parties received more votes than Eurosceptic parties, according to last week’s election results.

U.K. voters decided to leave the bloc in a 2016 referendum.