Brexit deadlock: majority of voters would vote for a new party A large majority of voters are growing so disillusioned with Brexit negotiations they would be prepared to vote for a […]

A large majority of voters are growing so disillusioned with Brexit negotiations they would be prepared to vote for a new party, a poll has revealed.

Almost four in 10 people (38 per cent) would vote for a new party on the right that was committed to Brexit, while a quarter (24 per cent) are prepared to back a far-right, anti-immigrant, anti-Islam party, according to the YouGov poll for the Sunday Times.

Tory donors and allies of former Ukip leader Nigel Farage are also reportedly plotting to raise £10m to set up a new hard-Brexit party, which would make it almost impossible for the Tories to win the next election. A close ally of Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, told the newspaper he aimed to raise a £1m from UK and US sources to create a right-wing “mass movement” to rival Momentum on the left.

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Meanwhile, a third of voters would be prepared to back a new anti-Brexit centrist party. The findings were published as it emerged Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable missed a crucial Commons vote on Brexit last week because he was discussing the creation of a new centrist party at a dinner meeting.

A Lib Dem source did not deny the report, insisting details of the “private meeting” had to remain under wraps. They told i that Sir Vince has been talking about “realignment” for a long time, since the party’s spring conference, and that the party leader wants to be at the forefront of that discussion. There would be no mergers or new party being created, the source said.

Alienated

However, in an interview on Friday to mark his first anniversary as leader Sir Vince gave the strongest hint yet that he was ready to get involved with a new party.

He said he was preparing the Lib Dems for a “radical” shift, saying: “There are large numbers of Labour MPs and quite a lot of Tories who are just bitterly alienated by their own people. I can’t see the present system can be kept going. In the new year, new groups may emerge.

“I’m not sure who, or how they’ll be configured. But I predict it is going to happen and my instincts are that if they’re aligned with us on basic values, we can work with them. And that’s what I am campaigning for.”

Further evidence of the polarisation of politics came with a separate poll which found that 40 per cent of people had “no trust at all” in the House of Commons. The survey, carried out for the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) think tank in March, also revealed fewer than one in 10 (9 per cent) of the public have “significant faith” in any layer of government acting in their best interests.

David Lidington, the de facto deputy prime minister, warned that lawmakers must address the lack of faith in the system held by much of the public or risk doing “lasting damage” to mainstream politics.

In a foreword to a CPS report, Who Governs Britain?, released today (Monday), Mr Lidington said: “The stark polling results (this paper) sets out show that too many people simply don’t know where power sits, or have faith in the people at all tiers of government who discharge it. Whatever party you are in, that should be troubling.”

The poll of 2,000 people carried out by Deltapoll also found that almost one in five (19 per cent) of 18 to 24-year-olds thought Brexit had already taken place. Ten percent did not think the House of Commons made or enforced laws that applied to them, while a further 19 per cent did not know.

CPS director Robert Colvile said: “The British people are simultaneously sceptical of government and largely ignorant about it. That is hardly a recipe for a healthy democracy.”