Voters in the United Kingdom head to the polls on July 4 for the country’s first general election since 2019. Ahead of the election, Britons see the state of the UK in relatively bleak terms.
No major political party receives a favorable rating from a majority of the British public. Few think the nation’s economy is in good shape. And people are more dissatisfied than satisfied with the state of democracy in their country, according to a Pew Research Center survey of 1,o17 British adults, conducted Jan. 11-March 9, 2024. (The survey was conducted before British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak officially called for an election.)
Views of several major political parties have become more negative in recent years
None of the four major British political parties we asked about in our survey – the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, the Conservative Party and Reform UK – receive net positive ratings from the British public.
- The Labour Party is seen most favorably at 47%, though this is down somewhat from 54% favorable last year.
- The Liberal Democrats get positive ratings from around four-in-ten Britons (38%). Again, this is down from 48% last year.
- The Conservative Party, which has governed the UK since 2010, is broadly unpopular. Only around three-in-ten British adults (29%) have a favorable view of the governing party. While largely unchanged since last year, views of the Tories are less positive than in 2021 and 2020, when about four-in-ten Britons saw them favorably.
- The only party that enjoys more favorable ratings now than in the recent past is Reform UK, formerly the Brexit Party. While only 31% have a favorable view of the party led by Nigel Farage, this is up 8 percentage points since 2022. It also marks the first time in our surveys that about equal shares have a favorable view of Reform UK and the Conservative Party (31% vs. 29%).
Growing share have unfavorable views of both the Labour and Conservative parties
This year, 35% of Britons have unfavorable views of both the Labour and Conservative parties. This is up 7 points since last year and has nearly doubled since the fall of 2020, when 19% had unfavorable views of both of the country’s dominant parties.
By way of comparison, this is also higher than the 28% of Americans who had unfavorable views of both the Republican and Democratic parties in 2023.
Most who identify with Conservative or Labour parties see their own party favorably
In the UK, people who identify with the Conservative Party are, unsurprisingly, more likely to have a favorable view of the party (74%) than those who identify with Labour (13%) or who say they do not feel close to any party (25%). But even among people who identify as Conservatives, the share who have a favorable view of their party has fallen in recent years. In 2020, 89% had a positive view.
Labour Party supporters, for their part, are more likely than Conservatives to have a positive view of their own party: 87% do. And the share who feel this way has been largely consistent in recent years.
Only about 1 in 5 say the UK’s economic situation is good
Few in the UK (22%) think their country’s economy is in good shape. With 78% saying it’s in poor shape, Britons are more negative about their country’s economy than people in most of the other countries we surveyed this year.
Conservative Party supporters (27%) are more likely than Labour Party supporters (18%) to think the economy is in good shape – as is often the case with members of a country’s governing party or coalition, according to our research. But even among Conservatives, positive views of the economy have fallen sharply in the last three years.
Fewer than half are satisfied with the way UK democracy is working
Today, more in the UK are dissatisfied than satisfied with the state of their country’s democracy (60% vs. 39%). As recently as 2021, 60% of British adults were satisfied with their democracy.
Conservative Party supporters are more likely than Labour Party supporters to be satisfied with democracy in their country (55% vs. 40%). Once again, we’ve found this is common for supporters of a country’s governing party.
But Conservative Party supporters are much less satisfied today than they were a few years ago, when around three-quarters or more were happy with the way democracy was working in the UK.
Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and the survey methodology.
Laura Silver is an associate director focusing on global attitudes at Pew Research Center.
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