MPs will debate rejoining the EU on Monday after 111,687 people asked

"I voted to stay in and I lost. Now I want to stay out and will probably lose again."

That reply sat under a post from BRICS News that said the UK Parliament will debate rejoining the EU. The post blew up. Within hours the replies read like a pub argument that had been going for ten years.

One person asked: "How can the UK reopen EU membership but Scotland can't reopen leaving the UK?" Another wrote: "EU would be sooo stupid to let them back." And one reply said BRICS News was leaving out a key detail "to bait you."

So what is true? The debate is real. The date is real. The detail left out is also real.

Is Parliament really going to debate rejoining the EU?

Yes. The UK Parliament petitions site lists a debate for Monday 12 October 2026 on petition 749128, called "Apply to rejoin the EU as soon as possible to increase growth in the UK."

It was started by Robert McMaster. It opened on 8 December 2025 and passed 100,000 signatures on 27 May 2026. It closed on 8 June with 111,687 signatures, of which 105,694 came from the UK.

The petition text says Brexit is not working. It argues the UK economy is smaller and trade weaker because of it, and it asks the government to apply to rejoin.

Source: UK Parliament petitions website, petition 749128.

What is the detail the viral post left out?

A debate is not a decision.

Under Parliament's rules, petitions that reach 100,000 signatures are almost always debated. That is all the signatures do. MPs talk, a minister replies, and the debate ends. There is no law changed and no vote to rejoin.

The government has also already answered. On 7 January it replied to the petition. "The UK will not be rejoining the EU," it said. It added that it has "reset" its relationship with the EU through a new strategic partnership, aimed at bills, borders, jobs and growth.

Photo: martin_vmorris / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

What does the petition actually ask for?

Its background text is short and blunt. It says the Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK's official forecaster, judges that the economy is smaller and trade weaker because of Brexit. It asks the government to apply to rejoin to "reverse the damage, boost growth, increase tax revenues and restore opportunities."

Ten years after the 2016 vote, that is the whole pitch. It does not set out terms, a timetable or what would happen to the pound.

McMaster says this is the third petition of its kind to this government, and the second to pass 100,000 signatures. That means rejoin campaigners have now done it twice in under two years.

Photo: Doyle of London / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Has this happened before?

It has. An earlier rejoin petition reached 100,000 signatures in February 2025 and was debated in Westminster Hall on 24 March 2025.

Government minister Abena Oppong-Asare told MPs the government would not seek to return to the EU. She also ruled out freedom of movement, the customs union and the single market, pointing to the Labour manifesto.

The government's written reply already tells us where it stands. Both sides will use the debate anyway.

What do the polls say about rejoining?

They say the country has moved. The question is how far.

A YouGov poll around the tenth anniversary of the vote found 58% now say leaving was the wrong decision. Only 29% say it was right, the first time that figure has fallen below 30%.

On rejoining itself, a poll in April 2026 found 55% in favour and 33% against.

29.00%Right to leave

58.00%Wrong to leave

55.00%Back rejoining

33.00%Against rejoining

See the numbers

Right to leave	29.00%
Wrong to leave	58.00%
Back rejoining	55.00%
Against rejoining	33.00%

Sources: YouGov (June 2026, Brexit ten years on) and April 2026 polling on rejoining as reported by The Portugal News. Separate polls, separate questions.

There is a catch in the polls too. A YouGov test in July 2025 told people that rejoining could mean accepting rules the UK once opted out of. Support fell to 36% and opposition rose to 45%. Among Leave voters, only 10% backed it on those terms.

That is the stay-out voter's argument in one number.

Would the EU actually let Britain back in?

Ask the replies and you get both answers. Some say the EU would welcome back one of its biggest economies. Others say Brussels would never forgive it.

Nobody can say yet, because the UK has not applied. To join, a country has to ask, and all current EU members have to agree to the terms. One country saying no is enough to block it.

The July 2025 poll above shows why that matters to voters. Any application would be talked through from scratch, like any other country's, and the opt-outs the UK once had would be part of that talk.

Why does Scotland keep coming up?

Because the comparison stings.

Scotland voted No to leaving the UK in 2014. In 2022 the UK Supreme Court ruled that the Scottish Parliament cannot hold another independence referendum without Westminster's consent. Supporters of independence argue that if the UK can ask whether Brexit worked, Scotland can ask whether the union did. The replies under the post show neither camp moving an inch.

If you want more Europe in the news this week, see our story on Yeşilgöz calling Russia the enemy. And for another UK argument that exploded on X, read the BBC pay claim, checked against its own figures.

So how big is this petition, really?

Think about the vote that took the UK out. In the 2016 referendum, 17,410,742 people voted Leave and 16,141,241 voted Remain.

The gap between them was 1,269,501 votes. That is more than eleven times the size of this petition. The argument over that gap has run for ten years. On Monday it gets one more day in Parliament, and the replies say it is nowhere near over.