60% of Guernsey residents want Britain to remain - Brexit Survey
BRITAIN should remain in the EU, according to more than half of the Channel Islanders who took part in a survey organised by Island Global Research.
The biggest worry, should Brexit happen without a deal, was the price of food increasing, and half of those in Guernsey and Jersey who took part in the survey thought that Brexit would have a negative effect on their island.
IGR said the concerns expressed reflect those made in a recent UK Yougov survey.
IGR asked residents of Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man for their views on Brexit, and 60% of Guernsey residents said that they would like to see Britain remain.
The figure in Jersey was slightly higher, at 61%, but in the Isle of Man, just under half said they would prefer the remain option.
Of those who voted to leave, most (22%) in Guernsey and Jersey said that leaving without a deal would be their favoured option, while the IoM had 33% saying they would prefer a no-deal.
The statistics were also broken down by age group, and more than three quarters of the participants who voted to remain were aged between 16 and 34.
This fell to about half of the respondents aged 50, and as the age increased so the percentage of those who would prefer the UK to leave rose. Of people aged 75 and over, 74% said they would prefer Britain to leave with or without a deal.
A total of 5,842 people took part in the survey – 1,610 from Guernsey, 2,127 from Jersey and 2,105 from the Isle of Man.
More than a third of respondents in all the islands said they were watching Brexit news closely or very closely, with only 3% in each island saying they were not following it at all.
All three islands shared a similar response to a question asking if people thought their governments were doing enough to prepare for Brexit, with 45% in Guernsey, 49% in Jersey and 47% in the IoM saying 'no'. Only about a quarter in each island thought that enough was being done, with the remainder uncertain.
