Protocol Gains Favor in Northern Ireland as Support for Unity Grows
- Support for Protocol more than doubles over year, survey shows
- Growing majority think Brexit makes united Ireland more likely
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Public support for the Northern Ireland Protocol has more than doubled from a year ago, a new survey showed, as the UK and EU continue a heated dispute over the part of the Brexit treaty dealing with the region.
There has been a “significant shift towards support for the Protocol,” with 33% saying it is “on balance a good thing,” compared to 16% in 2020, authors led by Queen’s University Belfast Professor Katy Hayward wrote in a research report. Underscoring the polarization of opinion, 21% said it was on balance a “bad thing,” up from 18% in 2020 and 33% regarded it as a “mixed bag,” according to the Northern Ireland Life and Times survey.