The latest Ipsos Political Pulse, conducted between 8-12 May 2026 among 2,191 British adults in conjunction with ITV/Peston, reveals a challenging landscape for the current government, with low favourability for Prime Minister Keir Starmer and a significant shift in public expectations regarding Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
Dr Elizabeth Nelson, the founding partner of Taylor Nelson, now one of the world's largest market research groups, leads the London arm of the International Women's Forum, and asked me recently to have a look at the upcoming elections in the USA and here in Britain. I'll confess, I hadn't been paying enough attention to what's been happening to the women's voting intentions since the last general election. Mea culpa!
This week the Electoral Commission and the Hansard Society published a report seeking to audit the nature and extent of the UK public's political engagement, to be used to provide a platform for further debate about what might be done to enhance engagement in politics and the political process. The report is primarily based on a Political Engagement Poll conducted by the MORI Social Research Institute of 1,976 UK adults aged 18+ conducted in December 2003.
MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,989 adults aged 18+ at 208 sampling points across Great Britain. Fieldwork was conducted face-to-face on 11-16 March 2004. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population.
The terrorist attacks in Madrid last week have had an immediate impact on British public opinion, according to MORI's latest Political Monitor. Asked unprompted to name the most important issues facing Britain today, more of the public mention defence and terrorism (41%) than any other issue. This is the first time since March 2003, then at the height of the Iraq War, that defence/terrorism has been seen as the most important issues facing the country.
As part of its work in relation to the Draft Local Governance (Scotland) Bill, the Scottish Executive is currently undertaking a review of Councillors' remuneration. To this end, it has established a Councillors' Remuneration Progress Group charged with establishing future remuneration, among other issues. To help inform the deliberation of the Progress Group, Glasgow City Council has undertaken a programme of research among current Members. The research comprises three main components:
The majority of British people think that Space should be a neutral place with no military uses and believe the US is more interested in the military potential of space than putting a person on Mars, according to new research conducted by MORI. It also shows support for the missions such as Beagle 2 and finding life on other planets.
After more than 100 days as leader of the Conservative Party, half the British public say they do not think Michael Howard is ready to be Prime Minister. When asked the same question four months ago , 30% of the public agreed that Michael Howard was ready to be Prime Minister and 48% disagreed. MORI's latest findings show that now 31% think Howard is ready (up one point), and 51% think he is not (up three points).
Peter Snow, perhaps Britain's keenest poll watcher — and his super wife, CBC Bureau Chief Ann McMillan — were at the American Ambassador's President's Day reception last month. He wanted to know what in the world has happened to the polling fraternity and was MORI going to restart (sic) our regular series of monthly poll reports again now that we have an election looming (15 months and counting). I was surprised he's not hardwired to our website (although he says he is), and reminded him that our monthly poll record is still unbroken since it began in 1979, nearly 25 years ago and is there for all to see.
