Fewer than one in ten oppose red and green lanes for goods going between Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Only one in ten (9%) oppose the idea of red and green lanes for products and goods that go between Northern Ireland and Britain, according to the latest polling from Savanta.

Half (50%) support the proposal, including nearly six in ten (56%) Leave voters.

While the so-called Windsor Framework outlines ‘red and green lanes’ for moving products and goods between Northern Ireland and Great Britain depending on their final destination, just under half (45%) say there should not be any checks at all on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including half of Leave voters (53%) and Remain voters (49%).

A third (35%) say there should be checks on products goods moved between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

And while the Windsor Framework facilitates the flow of goods between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, it does mean that NI will have to follow some EU trade laws. Just under half (46%) say this is fair, while a third (35%) say it is unfair.

Despite the breakthrough between the UK government and the EU, which has also seemingly satisfied the staunchly Brexiteer wing of the Conservative Party, the framework will also rely on unionist support in Northern Ireland, primarily through the largest unionist party, the DUP. In this poll, a third (32%) say there cannot be a deal which satisfies all concerned, while just under half (45%) say there can be a deal reached that satisfies all concerned, including half (49%) of Leave voters.

Chris Hopkins, Political Research Director at Savanta said, “The sheer complexity of such a framework makes the reaction to it difficult to poll accurately, but in terms of a snap reaction we can see that there is broad support – even across the Leave/Remain divide – for Sunak’s solution.

“However, this support is perhaps somewhat contradicted by half saying there should be no checks at all between GB and Northern Ireland, which would of course be a post-Brexit pipedream.”

“Much will now be made of what boost, if any, this framework will bring to Sunak’s ailing poll ratings. It’s hard to imagine the public getting anywhere near deep enough into the detail to ably judge Sunak’s success, but continued coverage of this breakthrough where his predecessors failed could reassert Brand Rishi’s over-arching USP: competence compared the chaos that came before him.”