Brexit: Why I regret voting to leave the European Union and now want the UK to remain

Regret: Denise, 49, voted to Leave
Chloe Chaplain23 June 2017
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A Brexit voter has told how she regrets her decision to vote leave exactly one year on from the referendum.

Primary school teacher Denise Huk, from Essex, said she regrets her choice because she objects to Theresa May’s plan for hard Brexit.

She also said she still believes she was deceived by the Brexit campaign in the run-up to the vote on June 23 last year.

Ms Huk says she is worried about the future of the UK as it negotiates its way out of the EU.

“I wanted to leave because they were talking about the £350 million that would go into the NHS and I thought we could do with that money,” she said.

“I thought there are better things to do with it. There is education, health, everything – it is all being cut.”

The 49-year-old, who lives with her daughter Chloe, 17, and sons James 16 and Robin, 11, near Colchester, said the reality of the Brexit deal outlined by Theresa May was not what she had been in favour of.

“I then had more regrets when Theresa May started talking about her ‘hard Brexit’,” she said.

In or out? an anti-Brexit protester in London, but Parliament has now voted to trigger Article 50
AFP/Getty Images

“I was not expecting to leave the single market. I thought there would be more opportunities to trade, not fewer.

False: Brexiteers backtracked over the £350million saving for NHS claim
© John Cobb / Greenpeace

“And at the moment we have not actually got a government to lead the negotiations. We do not have any bargaining tools and we have a PM who is just about clinging onto power.

Key Brexit Players - In pictures

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“I feel that she is really backing us into a corner.”

Ms Huk is not alone in regretting her decision, with a survey carried out in February by The Mirror revealing that 13.5 per cent of those who voted to Leave had since changed their mind.

Ms Huk, who voted for Labour for the first time in the 2017 election, said she did not believe David Cameron led a convincing Remain campaign in the lead up to the referendum.

David Cameron acknowledges applause during his final session of prime minister's questions
AP

“One of the reasons I voted for Brexit is because I felt that David Cameron was not outlining positive reasons for us to stay in the EU – he was just trying to scare us into not leaving by saying all the terrible things that would happen.

“And I thought ‘I’m not going to be bullied by you into not voting to leave’ – because I really did feel he was behaving like a playground bully.

"But now I am shocked the negotiations are going ahead.

"We need to sort out the problems in our country before we can move on to negotiating with the EU."

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