Some 70% of voters want a vote on Britain’s EU membership, Guardian/ICM poll shows.

Conservative rebels pushing for an in-or-out referendum on Europe are riding the tide of public opinion, according to a Guardian/ICM poll. Some 70% of voters want a vote on Britain’s EU membership, and by a substantial nine-point margin respondents say they would use it to vote for UK withdrawal.

Forty-nine per cent of voters would vote to get Britain out of Europe, as against just 40% who prefer to stay in.

There is a clear majority for staging a referendum on Britain’s relationship with Europe in each of the social classes and across the regions and nations of the UK. Men and women are similarly keen, as are supporters of all three main parties, although rather more Conservative (71%) than Labour voters (65%) are calling for a poll. Overall, just 23% of all voters say they would be against a vote that “could ask the public whether the UK should remain in the European Union or pull out instead”.

On the crunch question of which way they would vote, there are marked differences across the age range, and by party support. Where just 28% of the youngest voters aged 18-24 would vote to quit the EU, 63% of those aged 65+ would do the same.

An outright majority of Tory voters – some 56% – would vote to leave, as against 34% who would prefer to stay in. By contrast among Labour and Liberal Democrats, there are majorities for staying in Europe, although there are also sizeable minorities among both parties’ supporters – of 38% and 44% respectively – who indicate that they would vote to get out.

As David Cameron stands up to make the case against staging a referendum, he will argue that regardless of the public’s feelings on Europe, the issue is not currently their most pressing priority. Past polling evidence bears that out, with just 1% of the electorate having told ICM in the runup to the last general election that Europe was the most important question in how they would cast their vote.

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