This report presents the second set of results and key findings of a comprehensive public opinion survey of 4,368 adults carried out by YouGov on behalf of Best for Britain between 5th - 10th September 2025. This report builds on previous Best for Britain research which focused on public attitudes towards Brexit, ahead of the Budget of November 2025.
This report analyses respondents’ views as to the biggest issues facing the UK, and local communities. In both cases, questions were subject to a Max-Diff experiment. Expecting results to center on the economy, cost of living and immigration, respondents who picked these three options as one of the biggest issues facing the UK were presented with a follow-up question to each, exploring the reasons driving their concerns towards each of the issues. Throughout, we explored how views on the biggest issues affecting both the UK as a country, and individuals and their communities, were affecting electoral politics and the UK Government’s ‘relationship reset’ with the EU.
Results show that the cost of living is the top priority for people both nationally and locally. Conversely, the salience of immigration and asylum drops from the second most prominent issue in aggregate, to the seventh, when the biggest issues facing the UK are reframed to individuals and local communities. This drastic change in salience indicated that the concern about immigration is driven by media and political discourse about immigration and asylum. The cost of living, and in particular the cost of the weekly shop, the cost of energy bills and inflation are unifying factors across party lines, whereas immigration was the most divisive.
The results therefore suggest that UK Government policy and communications focussing on immigration and asylum - without tangible progress on addressing the issues of those concerned with immigration and asylum - were more likely to drive right-of-centre voters, including Conservative to Labour Switchers, away from Labour, while also coming at the expense of losing the support of left-of-centre voters.
In the context of the UK-EU Strategic Partnership (‘relationship reset’), results find that opposition to immigration and asylum centers around illegal - rather than legal - immigration even among Reform UK Supporters, paving the way for the planned UK-EU Youth Experience Scheme currently under negotiation.
Combined with the findings of previous Best for Britain analysis of public attitudes towards Brexit, which found that Brexit is seen as a substantial policy failure due to its damage to the UK economy, results in this report suggest that publicly linking the rise of food prices, energy bills and inflation to the damage Brexit caused to the UK economy is likely to resonate across party lines.
Given the UK Government’s ambition to negotiate new agreements on food and drink trade, and energy cooperation with the EU to drive down food prices and energy bills respectively, the results reinforce the notion that linking Brexit’s damage to the UK economy to UK Government fiscal policy, and its approach to the EU, is likely to resonate across party lines and provide consistency with regards to the UK Government’s approach to the UK economy.
The Data
Polling and research commissioned by Best for Britain. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc.
The survey presented in this report included a total sample size of 4,368 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 5th - 10th September 2025. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).
Data tables published by YouGov.