British voters support several key policies associated with U.S. President Donald J. Trump. An Opinium poll involving 2,000 participants surveyed opinions on 16 statements derived from Trump’s inauguration speech, adapted to a British context—and without President Trump’s name attached—finding huge support for a ‘Britain First’ platform.
Presented with the pledge, “We will declare a national emergency in the Channel, and we will begin the process of returning thousands and thousands of criminal migrants back to the places from which they came”—a reference to Britain’s ongoing boat migrants crisis—35 percent strongly agreed and 23 percent somewhat agreed, against just 12 percent each for strongly disagree and somewhat disagree.
Moreover, a net 63 percent agreed with the statement, “Our state fails to protect our law-abiding UK citizens but provides sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals that have illegally entered our country from all over the world,” against only 26 percent disagreeing.
Presented with the statement, “After years and years of efforts to restrict free expression, we will immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech,” 53 percent agreed, against only 26 percent who disagreed. Censorship is a major issue in Britain, which lacks a First Amendment and sees thousands arrested for “grossly offensive” communications every year, up to and including sharing George Floyd memes in private WhatsApp groups.
Additionally, 56 percent of Britons support imposing tariffs on foreign countries “to protect UK workers and families [and] enrich our citizens to benefit UK citizens.” This result is particularly curious, as while economic nationalism has been part of America’s public discourse for years, free trade dogma stands virtually unchallenged among Britain’s political and media establishment.
A majority of 51 percent also agreed with the statement “there are only two genders: male and female,” against 32 percent who disagreed. Meanwhile, 53 percent support moving to “end the government policy of trying to socially engineer ethnicity and gender into every aspect of public and private life [and] forge a society that is color-blind and merit-based,” against just 23 percent who disagreed.
