Political Britain
The UK’s Attitudes to Politics,
Revealed
Interest in UK politics is at an all-time high. Since the EU referendum was announced, there have been more than 200 million tweets about Brexit, Boris Johnson became the new PM, and there’s been an endless stream of resignations – not to mention the odd mikshaking.
With Westminster and the UK descending into an internationally acclaimed soap opera, it raises the question: how switched on are the general public about the current political landscape?
This is the Political Britain Survey.
Which Political Figures Can Brits Name?
To start, we asked 2,000 Brits to see which political figures they could name. Here are the key findings…
Given that Boris Johnson has just recently moved into Number 10, it came as somewhat of a surprise that almost a third (31.7%) of those surveyed couldn’t name the current UK Prime Minister.
Perhaps, more worryingly, is the discovery that 36.6% of Brits had no idea that Donald Trump was the President of the United States of America.
As a sign of party loyalty, 33.8% of Brits failed to recognise their local MP and couldn’t name them when prompted.
Only half (50.9%) of 16-24-year-olds could name the current or potential UK Prime Minister. The findings showed that this age group was found to have the worst knowledge of political leaders across all demographics surveyed.
Based on region, residents from the South West had the worst knowledge of political figures: only 31% correctly answered one or more of the questions in the table below.
What would Brits most like to do with each political figure?
Given the divisiveness of the current political climate, we asked Brits what they would like to do with each political figure they had knowledge of, given the opportunity.
The results are as follows…
Nigel Farage was the politician the majority of Brits wanted to go out for a drink with, while former PM Theresa May came first for who Brits most wanted to go for tea/coffee with.
Boris Johnson was the top choice to go on holiday with.
Esther McVey was the politician most Brits wanted to take out on a date and Michael Gove was avoided entirely: nearly half (46.8% of those surveyed) didn’t want to do any of the below options with the former Education secretary.
How do Brits feel about their political views?
For this section, we wanted to see the impact of the current political climate on Brits’ relationships with others.
And the results highlight just how divided and angry the country is.
With regards to social media, 15% of those surveyed admitted to publicly arguing with either a stranger or someone they knew over a political issue online.
In the real world, over 1 in 10 (11%) admitted to falling out with at least one friend / family member over a political issue such as Brexit.
The phrase, ‘opposites attract’ definitely isn’t true for some: 1 in 10 (11.1%) of 16-24 year-olds admitted they refused to date someone who had opposing political views to theirs. Furthermore, across all age groups, 5% of males and 3% of females admitted they had broken up with their romantic partner over differences in political opinion.
16-24-year-olds were the age group who felt the most pressured to vote a certain way by friends or family, with 16% of those surveyed feeling they had to vote for a party to maintain family trust.
But who could do a better job of Brexit than Theresa May?
Having dragged on for over three years and ultimately costing Theresa May her job as Prime Minister, we asked Brits who they thought could do a better job of handling Brexit.
There seemed to be a consensus that The Apprentice host, Lord Sugar, would be best suited to getting a deal done (9.7% of the vote), followed by Jeremy Clarkson in second (6.40%), and Piers Morgan in third (5.80%).
Reflecting rather badly on Mrs. May, 3.8% of Brits surveyed think the fictional character Keith Lemon would have done a better job of handling Brexit and getting a deal done.
Data sources and analysis
Survey of 2,000 British respondents from a range of geographical regions, incomes, age brackets and genders. Partnered with Censuswide.
Additional, exclusive insights available upon request.
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