A third of Britons say that UK's planned exit from the EU is the most important election issue

Latest public polling data from Kantar finds one in three Britons say that Britain's planned exit from EU as most important factor in deciding who to vote for on December 12th.
13 November 2019
westminster
Luke Taylor
Luke
Taylor

Head of Opinion Polling, Public Division, UK

Kantar voting intention research* (7 – 11 November 2019) finds that:

  • Conservative 37%
  • Labour 27%
  • Liberal Democrats 17%
  • Brexit Party 9%**
  • Green 3%
  • SNP 3%
  • UKIP 1%
  • PC 1%
  • The Independent Group for Change 1%
  • Other 1%

Kantar research also found:

  • A third of Britons (34%) say that the most important issue when deciding who to vote for is Britain’s planned exit from the EU, followed by the NHS (24%), the economy (10%), the environment (6%) and reducing crime (5%);
  • Men are more likely than women to be deciding who to vote for based on Britain’s planned exit from the EU (42% compared to 27% of women who say the same);
  • Women are more likely than men to say that the NHS is the most important issue when deciding who to vote for (30% vs 19% of men who say the same);
  • 41% of people stating that they will vote for Conservatives say that the party is “the best of a bad bunch”, and 45% of people planning to vote for Labour say the same. 

Views on the next Prime Minister

When asked to choose between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn as the best leader for Britain, a third of Britons (33%) choose Boris Johnson, compared with 19% who think Jeremy Corbyn. However, 37% of Britons think neither and 11% said they do not know.

Notes for editors

*Since our previous research in Kantar’s October Brexit Barometer, a squeeze question has been added (to get an indication of which way non-disclosers are leaning) and have imputed voting intention for those that have not stated a preference (at either the main voting intention question or at the squeeze). Under our previous approach, the headline voting intention figures would have been: Conservative (41%), Labour (28%), Lib Dems (16%), and Brexit Party (8%).

**This research was conducted before The Brexit Party announced it would not stand in all seats. In future polling, to account for further changes of this kind, respondents who indicate that they will vote for a party who is not standing in their constituency will be re-allocated to their second preference.

Methodological information

The survey data and further details on the methodological approach can be found here.

The Kantar Research Express Online Omnibus interviewed a representative sample of 1,165 adults in Great Britain between the 7th and 11th November 2019. All interviews were conducted as online self-completion. The Kantar Research Express uses the Kantar online access panel as its sample source.

The data was weighted to match population totals for age, gender, working status, 2017 General Election voting patterns, 2016 EU referendum voting patterns, education, region, and likelihood to vote in the next General Election.