After a three-year news cycle which at times seemed ceaseless, Brexit, the most dominant topic in recent UK politics, may finally occur at the end of the month. Whatever the result is on 29 March, the lead up to Brexit has already had a significant social and economic impact and has affected professional worlds across Britain’s working force.

One of the industries which will be affected heavily, especially when considering how businesses will construct their images in the wake of Brexit, is public relations. Since the Public Relations and Communications Association’s (PRCA) mission is to raise standards in PR and communications through providing members with industry data, facilitating the sharing of communications best practice and creating networking opportunities, the group collaborated with UK based marketing company the Pulse Business to conduct a survey.

The goal of the survey was to gather data which determined how top figures working in PR would prefer for Brexit to proceed. Francis Ingham, director general of PRCA, says, “The most recent PRCA Quarterly Economic Barometer showed that agency heads are positive for their own firms and for the wider industry, but overwhelmingly negative about the UK economy. At the heart of that negativity lies Brexit - an issue which PR leaders desperately want to see resolved.”

As it stands, the five primary options for the UK are as follows: a no-deal Brexit, delaying the departure by extending Article 50, leaving on terms agreed to by the prime minister, departing but remaining in the customs union or not partaking in Brexit at all by rescinding Article 50. In collecting responses from 361 industry leaders, the preference was clear: 45% of people desire for Brexit to be canceled, which is nearly double the percentage of the second most popular option, which was exiting but staying in the customs union.

This response is consistent with previous data on Brexit, as the vote on the referendum was decided by a mere 3.8% difference, and almost half the UK was not in favour of the decision. Additionally, renowned economists have almost universally agreed Brexit will have a negative effect on the income of most of the population, which has only served to engender more support of remaining in the EU.