Poll to Poll

Opinium’s latest polling provides further evidence of the UK public’s attitudes and feelings towards the crisis in Ukraine. It finds that 68% of those polled support efforts by the West to intervene diplomatically in an attempt to get Russia to stop its invasion. Asked, in the event of diplomatic means not succeeding, if Western countries should attempt to intervene militarily to protect Ukraine, 39% would support such a move compared to 36% who opposed the idea. Questioned as to how they rated the UK’s response to Russia, 38% said it had not gone far enough whilst 27% said they were not sure. At YouGov meanwhile, polling suggests that 69% of the public   would support another round of economic sanctions from the UK against Russia's interests in the country, whilst 45% would back sending additional troops to reinforce NATO allies in Eastern Europe. That said, 55% would oppose the UK conducting airstrikes against Russia. Additional data compiled by YouGov has found that...

Amidst such distressing scenes in Ukraine, CNN has published polling undertaken for it by Savanta ComRes on attitudes among Russians and Ukrainians. Published just a couple of days ago, it found that that 50% of Russians felt it would be right for the county to use military force to prevent Ukraine joining NATO, with 25% saying they felt it would be wrong. That said, 43% of Russians felt military force should not be used to unite Ukraine with Russia, with 36% saying such a goal would be right. CNN goes on to say: “Most Ukrainians reject Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assertion in a speech on Monday that their country has no historical basis and is essentially a creation of the Soviet Union. “Across the country and across all ages, a majority of Ukrainians say they are not “one people” with Russians and that the two countries should not be one.” Whilst 64% of those polled in Russia say Russians and Ukrainians are one people, just 28% of Ukrainians said they felt the same....

With President Biden having declared that he is now “convinced” that the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has decided to invade Ukraine, where does public opinion lay when it comes to a potential military confrontation? In the UK, Ipsos Mori earlier this month published polling which found that whilst 40% of those questioned supported   diplomatic and economic interventions against Russia and 36% supported humanitarian interventions, such as supporting Ukrainian refugees, just 17% would support UK troops being sent to intervene in any military conflict. 21% said they felt that Britain should not intervene at all. Asked how they felt the UK Government had handled the situation between Russia and Ukraine, 23% said it had done a good job, compared to 33% saying it had done bad job. In contrast, 41% said Boris Johnson personally had done a bad job of handling the situation compared to 19% who said he had done a good job. Questioned as to who, out of Boris Johnson and Keir Sta...

Opinium on Sunday published its latest polling for The Observer using a new methodology. Explaining the changes, it says: “The new methodology makes sure we are getting a sample that is balanced on political attention, ethnicity, as well as education qualifications. “We are using a new approach to turnout weighting to ensure our voters are representative of those people who actually vote in General Elections “One big effect of this is to decrease the importance of the fact that many Conservative voters are moving to undecided (and being excluded from the headline vote share figure), which is a big part of the reason for the recent Labour leads.” The headline voting intention figures give Labour a 3-point lead, with it polling on 37%, and the Conservatives on 34%. Whilst on the face of it this would suggest a considerable tightening of the position between the two main parties, Opinium is at pains to note that: “the smaller lead is because of the new methodology, not because of...

Just a day after the Labour Leader, Keir Starmer was harassed by protestors arguing that, as Director for Public Prosecutions, he let Jimmy Saville off charges of child sex offences, new  polling by Savanta ComRes suggests the public believe Boris Johnson is to blame. It comes after the Prime Minister last week falsely   accused Starmer of having failed to prosecute Saville. According to the snap poll of 1,094 UK adults 69% said the Prime Minister was responsible for Starmer being harassed, including 54% of those who voted Conservative in 2019. 68% said the Prime Minister should publicly apologise to Starmer. 68% said the PM should withdraw comments whilst 64% agreed that politics has gotten nastier in last five years. Meanwhile, according to Redfield and Wilton Strategies’ new polling Labour now has a 10 point lead over the Conservatives. It puts Labour on 42% (up 2 points from last week) with the Conservatives on 32% (down 1 point). The Government’s net competenc...