Only one in three Britons wants to stay in EU: poll

LONDON - Agence France-Presse

British Prime Minister David Cameron. AP photo

Only one in three Britons would vote to stay in the European Union in a referendum promised by Prime Minister David Cameron, according to a poll published in the Financial Times on Monday.

Fifty percent of Britons would vote to leave the bloc, 33 percent would vote to stay in and 17 percent would not vote, the survey by Harris Interactive for the newspaper found.

Cameron said in a speech on January 23 that he wants to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU and then put the new terms to the British public in an in-out referendum by the end of 2017.

Of those Britons who said they would vote to leave the EU, 12 percent said they would definitely change their minds if there was a successful renegotiation while 47 percent said they possibly would, but 41 percent said it would make no difference.

Forty-five percent of voters said Britain still benefits from its EU membership, against 34 percent who said it did not.

Just 31 percent said Britain's economy would be weaker outside the EU while 33 percent said it would be stronger and 37 percent said it would be the same.

Harris Interactive polled 2,114 British adults between January 29 and February 6.

Polls in Britain have shown a growing opposition to EU membership in recent months.