Half of Britons oppose resident doctors’ strikes, highest proportion recorded by Ipsos

Polling by Ipsos in the UK reveals public opposition to the resident doctors’ strikes has risen significantly, from 31% in June 2024 to 49% in December 2025. Fieldwork was conducted from the 12th-18th December, in the period just before and during the beginning of the start of the latest action on 17th December. 

Key findings

• Support and opposition: The proportion of those opposing the strikes has grown to 49%, the highest proportion Ipsos has recorded to date (up from 45% last month 31% in June 2024). A quarter (26%) support the strikes – down 2 points from November.

• Support / opposition by party: Based on 2024 vote
  • 32% of 2024 Labour voters support the strikes, 46% oppose. In November 40% supported and 38% opposed.
  • 72% of 2024 Conservatives and 69% of 2024 Reform voters oppose.
• Public sympathy: Public sympathy continues to sit predominantly with NHS patients, with 85% expressing a great deal or fair amount of sympathy for the impact strikes will have on them. On the other hand, the public are split on sympathy for resident doctors. 47% have a great deal / fair amount of sympathy and 46% have not very much / none at all. In November 50% had sympathy and 42% did not. In June this year 60% had sympathy and 33% did not.

• Perception of responsibility: Britons continue to be split between whether the government is more at fault (32%) or whether the government and resident doctors are equally at fault (33%) for the dispute lasting this long. 22% believe resident doctors are more to blame.  

Commenting on the findings, Kate Duxbury, Research Director at Ipsos said:

With half of Britons now opposed to the resident doctors’ strikes, it’s clear that public sympathy for doctors has waned over time. Just one in four now support the strikes and even Labour voters are now more likely to oppose than support. The public are also split on who they hold responsible for strikes but they are much less likely to blame this government than the previous Conservative one

Technical note: 

• Ipsos interviewed 2,153 online British adults aged 18-75 from the 12th-18th December 2025.   
• Data are weighted to match the profile of the population. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.