Soon it will be the seventh anniversary of Brexit. Then 37 per cent of registered voters decided upon divorce from the European Union. Today there is growing evidence that Brits are feeling

a reverse seven year itch. If polls are reliable, UK citizens are no longer sure that the divorce has brought a new life, vitality, happiness, fewer immigrants and above all increased

prosperity to the new king’s kingdom. A New Year poll for the _Independent_ showed two-thirds wanting a new referendum, with only 25 per cent opposed. Peter Kellner and other pollsters long

ago warned that the Leave campaign won only thanks to the votes of elderly voters. So as they shrugged off their mortal coils, the support for Brexit would wane. It was judged a rather cruel

the months since Boris Johnson was removed from Downing Street by Tory MPs last summer. Ever since his first campaigns against Europe, based on his wonderful fabrications in the _Daily

Telegraph_ in the 1990s, Johnson has been the Duce of populist sentiment against partnership with Europe. The dull supermarket CEOs and comfortable bank bosses who urged a Remain vote in

2016, even when supported by ageing lions like Lord Heseltine, were no match for the exuberance and sheer chutzpah of the Boris boys, such as Dominic Cummings and Arron Banks. The Leavers

were supported by unlimited torrents of words from the offshore-owned press, but also by the Comment pages of the _Guardian,_ where woke anti-Europeans like Owen Jones, the Anglican priest

Giles Fraser and the pundit supreme Sir Simon Jenkins told the left-liberal community that leaving the EU would be a moment of joyous liberation. But that was then. As Brexit bit and this

year’s Easter holiday-makers had to wait 14 hours to transit Dover in cars and campers, while food shortages emptied supermarket shelves in a way no EU member state experienced, people told

pollsters they were no longer sure Brexit was best for Britain. So far this year there have been several polls showing over 50% for rejoining the EU. One in February had 56% wanting to

rejoin. While the BBC and the pro-Brexit press maintain their _omertà_ on criticising the rupture with Europe, more and more businesses are speaking out. Rishi Sunak, arriving after the

clownesque and then chaotic premierships of Johnson and Liz Truss, seems to be bringing more measured  judgement to Downing Street. He can do figures and they are not good for the

_passionaras_ of Brexit. Nigel Farage, Richard Tice and others who still support their dream now blame Johnson and Sunak for failing to implement a tough enough Brexit. Yet the DUP and

Johnson himself were humiliated in the Commons last month. A derisory number of MPs followed Johnson and the Ulster identity Protestants into the lobby to reject the Windsor Framework, under

which London agreed to the Brussels terms for Northern Ireland remaining in the EU Single Market. More remarkable perhaps is the overwhelming majority of Brits who want to get back our

rights to travel, work, live, study or retire on the continent without special permits or 90 day limits on staying in an EU country. The Omnisis poll last month showed that 84 per cent

supported a return to mutual free movement. EU member states handle free movement — a core pillar of the European Union (and before it Community) going back to the 1950s, when discriminating

against hiring in the coal and steel communities of the Common market on grounds of nationality was made illegal. This is very different from the laissez-faire British approach. A word of

caution. As Jacques Lafitte, a veteran Brussel watcher of Brexit, notes, these polls do not ask the question: “Should Britain open its borders to free movement of Europeans to live, work,

study in the UK?”  It is not clear that those clamouring for a return to the Single Market or free movement appreciate the iron rule of reciprocity. What we might want from the EU’s 27

member states, the UK has to offer in return. For the time being no political party is calling for a new referendum. Indeed, all three main party leaders in England insist on the triple No:

“No” to the Single Market, “No” to the Customs Union, and “No” to Free Movement. That reflected what voters were telling pollsters under the Tory premierships of Theresa May and Boris

Johnson. But Sunak has reached out to President Macron on refugee boats and his deal with Brussels on Northern Ireland was followed by King Charles’s highly successful state visit to Berlin.

The PM’s new diplomacy, plus the prospect of another royal state visit and a new _entente cordiale _with France, once the present turmoil there has died down, is easing the hostility to

Europe of 2016. It is clear that most voters want to renew the relationship with the Continent after the 2016 divorce, to see if a new form of living together can be achieved. Sunak seems

aware of this change in attitude and is sending low-level signals that he wants to improve UK-EU relations. Labour and the LibDems still seem trapped by the polls as they existed between

2016 and 2020. The paradox thus emerges that the pro-Brexit Sunak may be closer to voters than the pro-Remain Starmer. Labour and the LibDems are increasingly out of step with public opinion

in their refusal to discuss rejoining the Single Market or easing the barriers to moving around Europe. Denis MacShane is the former Minister of Europe. His book _Brexiternity. The

Uncertain Fate of Britain_ was published by Bloomsbury in 2019. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important

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