New polling on behalf of Compassion in Politics finds that a majority (60%) of those polled believe that politicians in the UK are not compassionate enough. 28% believe that they are compassionate enough and a further 12% said that they did not know.

Labour voters are more likely than Conservative voters to believe that politicians are not compassionate enough – 68% of Labour voters picked this option compared to 51% of Conservative voters. There is little difference between Leave and Remain voters with 60% of the former and 64% of the latter selecting the option.

80% of those who think that politicians are not compassionate enough agree to some extent that the lack of compassion in modern politics is detrimental to the political system. Only 3% disagree with the remaining 18% saying neither or that they did not know. This equates to just under half of all respondents (48%) of all respondents believing that the lack of compassion is detrimental to the political system.

Again Labour voters are more likely than Conservatives to believe the lack of compassion is detrimental (87% of the Labour supporters who think politicians are not compassionate agreed with the statement compared to 75% of the Conservative voters who think politicians are not compassionate).

By past vote (of those who think politicians are not compassionate enough):

61% of those who think politicians in the UK are not compassionate enough (or 37% of all respondents) agree to some extent that if politicians were more compassionate they’d be more likely to engage in politics. 8% disagreed with the remaining respondents saying neither or don’t know.

Of those who believe that politicians are not compassionate enough it is those under 35 who are most likely to say they would be more likely to engage in politics if politicians were more compassionate.

By age (of those who think politicians are not compassionate enough):

Labour and Remain voters are also more likely than Conservative and Leave voters to agree.

By past vote (of those who think politicians are not compassionate enough):

Survation polled 1009 adults aged 18+ in the UK. Fieldwork was on the 10th October 2018. Data tables and methodology is available here.

Survation is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.

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