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In this newsletter:

Tracking public opinion on assisted dying: how have attitudes changed since the legislation entered Parliament?

Will delaying the mayoral elections help or hurt Labour?

This support spans across age groups and voter groups. While younger Britons and Reform UK voters are slightly less supportive than average, clear majorities in both groups still support legalisation.

What security measures would Brits like to see? From CCTV to nightly curfews, what does the public’s desire for greater security measures tell us about threat perception.

Tracking public opinion on assisted dying

As the Terminally Ill Adults Bill moves through its committee stage in the House of Lords, public opinion appears stable since we published Proceeding With Caution in November 2024.

Our polling shows that 64 per cent of Britons support legalising assisted dying in principle, almost identical to when bill was first introduced to Parliament. Support for the Bill itself is, at 67 per cent, when respondents are given details about the proposed safeguards, including a panel of legal, psychiatric and social professionals.

This support spans across age groups and voter groups. While younger Britons and Reform UK voters are slightly less supportive than average, clear majorities in both groups still support legalisation.

However, views are more divided when it comes to how the Bill is being handled in the Lords. After claims that Peers are attempting to ‘thwart’ or filibuster the assisted dying bill, we found that the public are divided on whether they are acting in good faith.

Just under 2 in 5 (38 per cent) say Peers are taking a long time to debate the bill because of legitimate concerns, while 43 per cent say they are doing so because they are fundamentally opposed and want to delay legalisation.

Against a backdrop of very low trust in government and Parliament, Britons are also more inclined to favour a referendum on assisted dying. More than a third (36 per cent) per cent say the issue should be decided by a national vote, compared to just 20 per cent who think it should be settled through parliamentary debate alone.

If they are to retain the public’s trust on this important issue, parliamentarians on both sides of the debate will need to do more to demonstrate that their scrutiny is being carried out in good faith.

Will delaying the mayoral elections help or hurt Labour?

Following the decision to postpone next year’s mayoral elections in Greater Essex, Sussex and Brighton, Hampshire and the Solent, Norfolk and Suffolk there have been suggestions that the delay was designed to avoid embarrassing losses for the Government.

Our new polling shows that the public is sceptical about the government’s motives for delaying the elections. Nearly three in five Britons (57 per cent) believe the Labour government postponed the votes because it is afraid of losing, while just over one in five (22 per cent) accept the government’s explanation that more time is needed for reorganisation.

This scepticism is especially pronounced among 2024 Reform UK voters, with four in five (82 per cent) saying the delay was politically motivated. But doubts extend beyond Labour’s opponents: two in five of Labour’s own 2024 voters (38 per cent) also think the elections were delayed for political reasons, although a slightly larger share (43 per cent) disagree. The risk for Labour is that postponement comes to be seen as “moving the goalposts”, reinforcing perceptions of a lack of confidence ahead of a critical set of elections in 2026.

What security measures would Brits like to see?

As we discuss in Shattered Britain, one of the key drivers of the public mood in 2025 is threat perception. Nearly nine in ten Britons believe the world is becoming a more dangerous place, and this view is most commonly held among Reform UK voters.

In this context, there is widespread support for many seemingly controversial security measures. Nearly two-thirds of Britons (64 per cent) support the implementation of metal detectors in schools. 62 per cent support terror attack drills in schools and workplaces. Nearly three in five Britons (59 percent) would support CCTV on every street.

Perhaps most strikingly, most Britons (56 per cent) would support nightly curfews in high crime areas.

While many of these measures - much like digital ID - would likely be received differently by the public in practice, this polling demonstrates the deep sense of threat that defines public opinion in 2025, and the widespread appetite for more to be done to make Brtions feel safer.

That’s all for this week. Thanks so much for reading - and do let us know what you think.

All the best,

Luke