THE next generation must reverse Brexit, the president of the European Commission has said, as she insisted politicians "goofed it up" in 2016.
Ursula von der Leyen insisted in an interview at the Politico 28 awards in Brussels that the UK was on a clear "direction of travel" towards rejoining the bloc.
Asked whether Britain could ever get back into Europe, she said: "I must say, I keep telling my children: ‘You have to fix it. We goofed it up, you have to fix it.’ So I think here too, the direction of travel — my personal opinion — is clear.”
Polling consistently shows a majority of voters in the UK would back rejoining the EU if asked to do so at a referendum.
The latest survey by Deltapoll published in late November shows rejoining on 48% and staying out on 36%, but neither Labour or the Tories have any apparent desire to consider reversing Brexit.
Von der Leyen described the Windsor Agreement on Northern Ireland, struck between Brussels and London earlier this year, as “a new beginning for old friends".
Earlier this month the Scottish Government published a fresh white paper focusing on an independent Scotland in the EU - highlighting the benefits of membership as well as what Scotland could do for the political union.
European expert Kirsty Hughes, who was previously founder and director of the Scottish Centre on European Relations, said it offered a "serious, sustained case" for Scotland rejoining as an independent nation and would likely impress an EU audience.
