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Labour Party placards reminding UK voters about the upcoming July 4 elections. (John Keeble/Getty Images)

Voters in the United Kingdom head to the polls on July 4 for the countrys 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 nations 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.)

This Pew Research Center analysis examines how people in the United Kingdom view the countrys major political parties, its economic situation and the way democracy is functioning.

Data comes from a survey of 1,017 adults in the UK conducted by random-digit dial from Jan. 11-March 9, 2024. The survey is weighted to be representative of the adult population in the UK with the following variables: gender, age, education, region and probability of selection of respondent.

Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and the survey methodology.

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.

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 countrys 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.

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.

Few in the UK (22%) think their countrys economy is in good shape. With 78% saying its in poor shape, Britons are more negative about their countrys 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 countrys 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.

Today, more in the UK are dissatisfied than satisfied with the state of their countrys 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, weve found this is common for supporters of a countrys 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.

See the article here:
Ahead of UK election, dissatisfaction with economy and democracy - Pew Research Center