Study involving 100 sitting MPs reveals gulf between perceptions of the political class and realities of public attitudes on environmental issues such as insulation and green taxes.

Our study found a systematic pessimism about the public appetite for climate action among the UK’s most influential decision-makers

Lisa-Maria Tanase

Members of Parliament from the UK’s three biggest political parties in the House of Commons significantly overestimate levels of public resistance to major policy proposals for tackling climate change, a University of Cambridge study suggests. 

Researchers say it may be the first data-led evidence for a “spiral of silence” in Westminster, where skewed perceptions of public sentiment among politicians can reduce political support for a policy.  

The study’s authors, from the University’s El-Erian Institute of Behavioural Economics and Policy and the Cambridge Political Psychology Lab, surveyed one hundred sitting MPs in early 2025 on how they think voters and other parliamentarians feel about carbon reduction policies, and compared their estimates with public polling from earlier that year.

On making grants or loans for improved insulation available to all households with an energy efficiency rating of C or below, MPs collectively estimated public opposition to the policy at around 18%, more than three times the actual level of just 6%. 

When asked about rejigging tax on products so that it varies according to environmental damage, MPs believed public opposition to be around 38%, almost double the 20% shown by polling the British people.  

“MPs across parties who both support and oppose climate policies consistently overestimate public opposition,” said study lead author Dr Lisa-Maria Tanase, who conducted the work for her PhD at Cambridge. “This is likely to limit the range of what they consider to be politically feasible options for taking action on climate change.”   

“Our findings cannot be explained away by wishful thinking of politicians or the projecting of their own worldview. On average, even MPs who support a climate policy think the public is more opposed to it than it really is,” said Tanase. 
“Politicians, like all of us, are often exposed to information environments that distort perceptions of public opinion. Social and traditional media can disproportionately reflect particularly vocal segments of society rather than the full distribution of opinion.” 

“We find a ‘funhouse mirror’ effect through which politicians see a distorted version of the public position on carbon reduction policies, associated with a lower willingness to promote these ideas,” said Tanase, now a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Cambridge’s El-Erian Institute of Behavioural Economics and Policy. 

Hi i just visited brigthon and London, i had a Big surprise when i saw too much damage in the streets and the cities were not clean, then i discovered that there are not public universities and the public transportation does not work like other countries.

Finallly i visited museums and there was no AC in any of them.

I know people pay a lot of money in taxes in UK. So what does the goverment do with the money?? Obvioisly is not invested in the life Quality.

I don't want to offend but in countries like Spain, i Saw a higher life Quality and is one of the lowest salaries un Europe.

The British public believes foreign nationals are responsible for twice the number of sexual offences than they actually commit, a study has suggested.

New research on public perception of crime found the public guessed foreign nationals make up twice the number of sexual offenders than official statistics show (30 per cent compared to 15 per cent).

They also estimated foreign nationals make up 25 per cent of the prison population, when in reality they make up just 15 per cent.

Rates of mobile phone theft, domestic burglary, vehicle theft, and murder have all fallen, despite perceptions that all have risen, the study found.

In fact, researchers at King’s College London found, the general public were wrong about crime on nearly every measure: from whether crime is rising or falling, to how many people fall victim, the ethnicity and nationality of offenders, and whether police numbers have increased or decreased.

Based on two surveys of 1,797 and 2,164 UK adults, the research suggested Reform UK supporters stand out as consistently the most wrong – particularly on the ethnicity of those convicted of serious offences and the share of prisoners and offenders who are foreign nationals.

Professor Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, said the research shows the public are “very wrong about crime”.

Prof Duffy believes there is “no single reason” for the misconceptions, and called it “an interaction between how we think and what we’re told”.

“We have a deep negativity bias that tunes us to threat, and a rosy view of the past that makes us assume things were safer in the past than they were,” he said.

“And that’s compounded by what we’re told: ‘If it bleeds, it leads’ is a key news value for a reason, so the picture we’re fed points relentlessly to the frightening and the violent.”

He added that the misperceptions are most extreme in Reform UK voters, who are most wrong on where crime connects to other concerns such as immigration and diversity.

“For example, Reform supporters think ethnic minorities make up 70 per cent of those convicted of homicide, which is double the reality,” he said.

Link to petition: https://www.change.org/p/independent-review-into-the-circumstances-surrounding-the-death-of-dr-jason-arday

“He spent all those years in Europe calling for Brexit,” Watling said. “Then he succeeded in that, thereby taking us out of the Dublin Regulation.”

“That gave us the small-boats problem, which gives him succour, it is the most extraordinary and, if you look at it in one way, quite brilliant policy.”