Public Opinion & Voting - Main Points

The below summary was last updated September 2019

Key issues

30 million UK adults (nearly 60% of the UK adult population) support reductions in immigration levels – see our paper (polling 2018-19).
Well over half of these (18.5 million) think immigration has been much too high and/or want to see it reduced by a lot (polling 2018-19).
Only a small minority (10%) wish to see immigration increased (polling 2018-19).
Only a small minority say the UK would be better off if we let in all immigrants who wanted to come here (Ipsos, 2019).

Voters said that immigration was one of the top three issues on which they would base their vote at the next election (Opinium, February 2018).
The salience of immigration has declined in recent years compared to other issues, including Brexit and the NHS (Ipsos MORI issues index).
Yet UK respondents still see immigration as one of the two most important issues facing the EU (Eurobarometer, 2019)

Nearly three-quarters of the public supported the government delivering on its repeated promises to significantly reduce the level of net migration (Deltapoll, June 2018).
57% say they are dissatisfied with how the government is handling immigration (Ipsos MORI, 2019).
Only 13% of the public trust MPs to tell the truth on immigration either all or most of the time; just 17% trust the government to do the same (ICM, 2018).

Nearly two-thirds (64%) say the UK population is growing too rapidly (YouGov, 2018).
Almost three quarters (73%) of the public think the UK is crowded (YouGov, 2016).

68% say that migration puts pressure on public services and housing (Ipsos MORI, 2019), while 58% said in a separate survey that immigration places too much pressure on these amenities.
69% think that the country is in the throes of a housing crisis, and (54%) see immigration as the largest contributor (Opinium, 2017).

77% of Britons agree that illegal immigration is a serious problem facing the UK (higher than for 12 EU countries - 2018 Project28 poll)
70-80% support the ‘compliant environment’ policies to tackle illegal immigration (YouGov, April 2018).

71% of Britons believe that immigration has made communities where migrants have settled more divided, reaching 78% in areas experienced large-scale recent immigration (2018 poll by Demos).
65% think the influx of immigrants will change the culture of the UK (2018 Project28 poll)
64% say that too often, migrants don’t integrate and follow British customs (Ipsos MORI, 2019).
A large majority (between 80% and 95%) think it is either very important or fairly important that migrants have an ability to speak English to become ‘truly British’ (Open Europe / NatCen).