Subscribe Here | Send your thoughts

Dear friend,

Happy new year!

In this week’s newsletter:

• The state of social cohesion as we head into 2026: Britons’ changing views on the country’s key divides, and which groups feel that our differences are surmountable.
• Riots, recession and no world cup: Brits’ bleak predictions for 2026. We asked what the public expected to happen in the new year.
• Ending a Losing Streak: our latest report looks at public opinion on gambling, addiction and regulation.
• New year, new you? What New Year’s resolutions do different voters and age groups make?

But first… we’re hiring!

As we start the new year, we’re growing the team and are excited to share two new opportunities at More in Common.

Training and Development Associate

In 2026, we’ll be launching a set of new training programmes rooted in our research to help those who work with our insights to make the best use of them. This role is ideal for someone who understands our work and is excited to help build our new training arm by designing, piloting and delivering workshops and seminars to leaders and organisations.

Communications Assistant

We want to make sure we communicate our insights so as many people as possible can learn from them  and we're looking for someone to help us take More in Common's profile to new heights in 2026. The post holder will support proactive media outreach, translate our research into clear and compelling content, and help disseminate our findings to journalists, partners and other key audiences.

You can find out more about the two roles below. If you’re interested, or know anyone who might be a good fit, please do apply or share it with your network. And feel free to reply to this email with any questions!

The state of social cohesion in 2026

To mark the end of the year, we asked Britons how they felt about the divisions facing the country.

Mirroring the growing salience of migration as an issue, one significant shift we’ve seen over the past year is a rising proportion of Brits who say that our biggest divide is between migrants and those born in the UK. Nearly half of Britons (47%) now select this as one of our greatest divides, overtaking the gap between rich and poor (45%).

How positively Brits view migration and multiculturalism is a growing faultline that clearly shapes how people vote. Majorities of Conservative and Reform voters say immigration is our biggest divide; most Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green voters point to class/wealth as a bigger split.

Interestingly, the rich-poor divide is less important to Reform voters than any other group - with only 25 per cent seeing it as a top issue, having been supplanted among this voter group by migration and cultural cleavages such as ‘between Muslims and non-Muslims’, ‘white people and ethnic minorities’ and ‘woke and non-woke’.

More broadly, a record number of Britons (nearly two-thirds) say the UK is divided - the highest since we began tracking this in 2022.

The proportion of Britons who say the UK is divided has risen from 54 per cent to 64 per cent, while the proportion who say it is united has dropped from 20 per cent to just 15 per cent.

Cut across our Seven Segments, Established Liberals stand out in their optimism - they’re split on whether the UK feels united or divided. Rooted Patriots are the most likely to say the UK is divided (80 per cent), a sentiment shared across right-leaning segments but also Progressive Activists (71 per cent).

While Britons see the country as divided, most still feel that these differences are surmountable: 55 per cent say that “the differences between Britons are not so big that we cannot come together.” 

Yet a rising number of Britons feel that the differences between us are too great to overcome: 45 per cent hold this view, the highest since we began tracking in 2020, and an increase of 10 points since May of this year.

This is another key fault line in Britons’ understanding of the country’s divisions. Interestingly, it does not map neatly onto how divided people feel the country is. While Progressive Activists are more likely than average to say the UK feels divided, they are also among the most optimistic in their view that these divisions are surmountable.

Notably, Rooted Patriots are the least hopeful that these differences can be bridged: 63 per cent say that our differences are too big for us to come together.

These beliefs have a clear political dimension: those who vote for more populist parties in the left and right tend to be more likely to say that the UK is divided, and Reform UK voters in particular stand out in their view that these differences cannot be overcome (55 per cent hold this view). In contrast, voters for traditional mainstream parties are often more likely to view the UK’s differences as surmountable.

A sense of division links closely to the decline in support for the political and social status quo and helps to explain the fragmentation of our politics in recent years.

Riots, recession and no world cup: Brits’ bleak predictions for 2026

What do Britons see on the horizon for 2026? We asked the British public about a range of predictions for the coming year. The polling reveals bleak expectations, with most Brits predicting political chaos, recessions, and no World Cup trophy for the England team. 

Riots, recessions and cyberattacks: 61 per cent of Britons think that the UK will see violent riots and protests in 2026; 60 per cent believe that the UK will enter a recession; 54 per cent believe that a major cyberattack will disrupt the country’s critical infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Britons think the PM’s future hangs in the balance. The public are split down the middle on whether Keir Starmer will last the year: 44 per cent think it is likely that Starmer will be replaced as Prime Minister, while 43 per cent believe it is unlikely. Even among those who voted Labour in 2024, a third (34 per cent) say it is likely Starmer will resign.

Britons are more pessimistic about Welsh Labour’s prospects in the Senedd: By a margin of nearly two-to-one (48 per cent to 25 per cent) Britons think it is likely that Labour will cease to be the largest party in the Welsh Parliament.

There’s widespread pessimism about the war in Ukraine, with barely a fifth of Britons (22 per cent) believing the conflict is likely to end in 2026. And there’s a lack of hope for the NHS: by a margin of 72 per cent to 21 per cent, Britons do not believe that NHS waiting lists will fall.

And it’s (probably not) coming home: with just a third of Britons (34 per cent) thinking it likely that England will make it to the men’s World Cup final, while half (50 per cent) say it’s unlikely. Interestingly, current Labour voters are the most optimistic about the England team’s chances - the only voter group who tend to say it is likely (48 per cent) rather than unlikely (41 per cent) that England will make it to the final.

Ending a losing streak

Yesterday, we released Ending a Losing Streak, looking at public opinion on gambling, addiction and regulation.

Gambling is everywhere in Britain. Betting shops can be found on every high street, adverts dominate TV and social media, and a range of mobile apps allow people to bet, spin and go all-in at any time and any place. Most Britons say that it's gotten more noticeable in recent years, particularly its advertising and sponsorships in sports. 

While many Britons enjoy an occasional bet and see nothing wrong with gambling per se, the intensity of gambling promotion and its ubiquity in our lives is leading many Britons to worry about the effect it is having on their communities, families and children.

"I put something on at school the other day to watch something on YouTube and there was a video, an advert in the middle of it, and it was for gambling. It had nothing to do with the PG video clip that I was trying to show them."

Claire, teacher, Newmarket

"It's just a number on a screen... It's just a figure. A hundred, 500. Does it make a difference? If it was physical money going into a bookmaker, you'd see what you are losing. But then I look at it as just a number on a screen, a hundred pounds wiped out."

Martin, driver, Clacton-on-Sea

"Because they're so accessible, and it takes two minutes to load it, and you can do it anytime. You can do it when you're making a cup of tea, when you're waiting for a bus, when you're sitting on the toilet, you can just do it at any time and it's just so easy to access."

Nicola, Betting shop employee, Newmarket

You can read the full report here: 

New year, new you?

With the new year kicked off, it’s time to get started on our New Year’s resolutions. But how many Britons actually make them?

Around a third of Britons (32 per cent) planned to make a resolution this year. The most stark trend we see is that Britons are far less likely to make a resolution as they age: three in five Gen Z Britons (61 per cent) made a resolution, dropping to just 15 per cent of those over the age of 75.

Interestingly, while young men are the most likely demographic to make a resolution (67 per cent), the gender gap reverses as people get older - among Gen X and Baby Boomers, women are significantly more likely to make resolutions than men.

What are the most popular resolutions? Top of the list is a goal to save more money (17 per cent of the public have made this plan), followed by a series of health-related resolutions: to lose weight (16 per cent), exercise more often (13 per cent) and eat healthier (10 per cent).

As always, there’s also a political angle to this, with some variance across voter groups. 2024 Conservative voters are the most likely to commit to exercising more often, Reform voters will be saving money in the new year, and Liberal Democrats most likely to want to lose weight.

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to check out our jobs page if you’re interested in our new opportunities. Wishing you a happy new year!

All the best,

Luke