On 9 November 2026, the Daily Mail published a story headlined “PM’s EU reset has failed his ‘Makerfield test’”, saying voters in the Prime Minister’s constituency “reject” the plan to bring the UK closer to the EU.

The headline presents a campaign group’s interpretation as a finding about what voters think, days before the UK–EU summit on 20 November.

The poll behind the story never asked voters about the EU. Survation interviewed 500 Makerfield voters for Britain Unbound, a pro-Brexit campaign group. Respondents were asked to put aside their views of the current government and say how ten issues should be decided by “UK governments in general”: alone; by voluntarily seeking, but not being bound by, agreements with other countries; or by following international institutions. The questions did not mention the EU, the reset or the planned deal, as the Mail’s article itself concedes further down. The verdict that voters had rejected the reset was the campaign group’s own inference.

The article also left out the poll’s middle option, presenting the results as a choice between the UK acting alone and following international institutions.

The Daily Mail reaches up to 16.2 million people.

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