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 As Prime Minister David Cameron pushed for a deal from other EU
leaders to improve London's membership terms before a vote he could
call as early as June, the ORB poll indicated that opposition to the
European Union was growing in Britain.
While 21 percent of voters are still undecided, 43 percent want to
leave the EU and 36 percent want to stay, the survey showed.
When the undecided are stripped out, 54 percent of voters want a
British exit, or 'Brexit', up from 51 percent a year ago, and 46
percent want to stay, down from 49 percent.
The public scepticism contrasted with Cameron's latest declaration
of optimism that a deal can be struck on his demands for changes in
Britain's relationship with Brussels, including reducing benefit
rights for EU migrants working in the UK.
"We believe that all these issues can be dealt with. The discussions
are going well," Cameron said in Wildbad Kreuth, Bavaria, after what
he said was an "excellent meeting" with German Chancellor Angela
Merkel over dinner on Wednesday.
 The ORB poll indicates that the referendum could be far closer than
some politicians had assumed and that the result will depend on a
fifth of voters who are still undecided.
"Despite the impending vote on Brexit, significantly more people
report to have felt further removed from Europe over the last twelve
months than closer to it," Johnny Heald, managing director of ORB
International, told Reuters.
"If the Prime Minister is to avoid disaster on his watch someone
needs to start convincing the public very soon on why we should
remain a part of the EU."
A British exit would shake the Union to its core, ripping away its
second largest economy and one of its top two military powers.
Pro-Europeans warn an exit from the EU would hurt Britain's economy
and could trigger the break-up of the United Kingdom by prompting
another Scottish independence vote. Opponents of EU membership say
Britain would prosper outside the bloc.
"REASONABLE DEAL"
Cameron, who is urging fellow leaders to clinch an agreement at an
EU summit on Feb. 18-19, dined with Merkel and her conservative
Bavarian allies on Wednesday.
"Throughout these next weeks, it is especially important that we
make decisions in our own interest in order to achieve a reasonable
package that will allow Great Britain to remain a part of the
European Union," Merkel said before the dinner. In a speech to
German lawmakers last month, she called Britain a "natural ally",
stressing its importance to Europe's internal free market and its
weight in foreign policy debates. She also said she was "confident"
a solution would be found.
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Cameron was at a session of the Christian Social Democratic Union,
the sister party of Merkel's CDU, before traveling to Budapest for a
meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a prickly
Eurosceptic conservative ally.
In Hungary, he will seek support for his most contentious demand -
that Britain be allowed to limit the in-work benefits paid to EU
migrants, something critics say amounts to illegal discrimination.
"I'm confident with goodwill - and there is goodwill I think on all
sides - we can bring these negotiations to a conclusion and then
hold the referendum," Cameron said in Wildbad Kreuth.
"I've been very heartened by the goodwill I've felt by fellow sister
party members in the CSU here in Bavaria today."
Orban, criticized in the EU for his outspoken opposition to
admitting refugees and his embrace of "illiberal democracy" at home,
was Cameron's only ally in a failed 2014 attempt to block the
appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission president.
Hungary's foreign minister said on Thursday that Budapest supports
some of Britain's reform proposals that aim to boost economic
competitiveness in the EU but would not want to see an erosion in
the free movement of labor.
"It is legitimate from an EU member state to spell out reform
proposals," Peter Szijjarto told state television.
"One of the most important merits of the EU is that it has very
serious achievements, a part of which are related to a high level of
freedom in the movement of labor," he added.
"In general, we do not think that a step back from EU achievements
would be a positive process, at the same time we understand the
challenges that Britain is facing."
(Editing by Stephen Addison and Paul Taylor)
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