Britain split on Burnham election call as fatigue grips foreign debate

Britain woke up to the sound of deadlock. On the single most striking question of the day, the country split exactly down the middle over whether Andy Burnham should call an immediate general election, producing no mandate at all on a question about mandates.

The verdicts

Fatigue, not fury, carried the rest of the foreign-policy slate. Four in five voters told does the Muslim and Jewish debate dominate UK politics too much? that the Israel-Gaza conversation has crowded out everything else, a verdict so broad it barely shifted by age or sex.

The same near-consensus appeared on does trial by media undermine fair justice in the UK?, where four in five again said yes. Every age group lined up together; the real divide was between the sexes, with men emphatic and women split down the middle.

Knighthoods proved less conditional than many expected. Three in four said should Mo Farah get his knighthood removed? after his trafficking revelations, deciding that survival lies told to the authorities sit in a different moral category to outright criminality.

Scepticism ran through the justice questions. The country said no by three in five to the notion that treating the Widdecombe murder as terrorism strengthens public confidence in UK justice, mostly because it did not trust the authorities' word. On should police use AI to review and summarise digital evidence in criminal investigations? the chamber split almost exactly down the middle, a knife-edge yes suggesting instincts here are practical rather than ideological.

Voters showed little confidence in the political class. Almost three in four answered do you believe that most politicians are honest? with a blunt no. Two in three thought did Dale Vince receive favourable government contracts in return for his donations to Labour? and the same proportion backed should the UK tax wealth not work for assets over 10 million in value and reduce tax on income? — though the 55-64s, closest to retirement, recoiled from the wealth tax.

On welfare, two-thirds supported should the government introduce the Adult Social Care Fair Pay Agreement with annual negotiations on pay and conditions?, but the result masked a sharp gender split: men drove the yes while women, who dominate the care workforce, tilted against it.

The Reform party question produced the narrowest partisan result. A bare majority said will Farage be Reform leader by end of the year? no, with doubt thickest among the youngest voters. And on whether will Andy Burnham make a better prime minister than Keir Starmer? the country said no by roughly three in five, offering the new prime minister a lukewarm reception at best.

Voting continues today.

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