{"id":4579,"date":"2026-06-03T12:05:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T09:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/immigration-tops-list-of-british-publics-biggest-worries\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T12:05:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T09:05:39","slug":"immigration-tops-list-of-british-publics-biggest-worries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/immigration-tops-list-of-british-publics-biggest-worries\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigration Tops List of British Public’s Biggest Worries"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ipsos Issues Index for May shows 41 percent of respondents identified immigration as an important issue confronting Britain, according to Brussels Signal<\/em>. That represents a nine-point jump from April and returns the issue to levels recorded earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Immigration also ranked as the single most pressing concern, with 22 percent of those surveyed naming it their top worry.<\/p>\n

The economy placed second at 34 percent, a figure that has remained largely static over the past month. Inflation came third at 25 percent, down five points since April.<\/p>\n

The National Health Service registered as the fourth-biggest concern at 22 percent, while anxiety about defense and foreign affairs dropped 10 points to 15 percent.<\/p>\n

Sharp Divisions Across Demographics<\/h2>\n

Concern over immigration varied dramatically across different segments of the British population. Support reached 83 percent among backers of the right-wing Reform UK party, followed by 52 percent among those aged 55 and older and 47 percent among citizens in lower social grades.<\/p>\n

Economic Pessimism Deepens<\/h2>\n

The polling also revealed profound pessimism about Britain’s economic trajectory. Ipsos’ Economic Optimism Index found just 9 percent of Britons believe the economy will improve over the next 12 months, while 73 percent expect deterioration.<\/p>\n

That produced a net score of minus 64, an improvement from the previous month’s record low of minus 72 but still far below the long-term average of minus 18.<\/p>\n

Ipsos<\/strong> noted the figure matches some of the bleakest economic periods in recent British history, including the 1980 recession, the 2008 financial crisis, and the cost-of-living crisis that followed the invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The polling firm added that net economic optimism measured 22 months into Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s<\/strong> tenure stands as the lowest on record for any prime minister at that stage of their leadership.<\/p>\n

Gideon Skinner<\/strong>, Senior Director of UK Politics at Ipsos, said immigration had reclaimed its prime position among public concerns, though Britons remain deeply pessimistic about economic prospects.<\/p>\n

Skinner noted that attention has now shifted to the upcoming by-election in Makerfield in northwest England, where local sentiment broadly mirrors national trends.<\/p>\n

The polling was conducted between May 6 and 12, 2026, based on telephone interviews with 1,003 adults aged 18 and over across Great Britain. Responses were given spontaneously without prompting.<\/p>\n

With information from Brussels Signal<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Immigration has surged to the top of British public concerns with 41 percent naming it a critical issue in May 2026 polling, while economic pessimism remains near record lows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":4578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[4985,453,1331,4983,693,4984,48],"nfg_topic":[134],"class_list":["post-4579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-brussels-signal","tag-economy","tag-immigration-policy","tag-ipsos","tag-nhs","tag-public-opinion","tag-united-kingdom","nfg_topic-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4579"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=4579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}