News

The Guardian

27 May 2025

How voter dissatisfaction could give Reform a Holyrood byelection boost

Drawing on a focus group organised by More in Common ahead of the 5 June byelection for the Holyrood seat of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, in Scotland’s central belt.

It’s “time to give someone else a chance,” says Jamie, a service engineer from Hamilton.

The language is “shockingly familiar”, says Tryl, to what he’s heard from disillusioned voters in England and Wales. While Farage has historically struggled to gain a foothold in Scotland, Tryl suggests this “could be starting to change”.

Sky News

19 May 2025

People do feel like strangers in Britain - but it's not just because of migration, polling finds

Last week, Sir Keir Starmer voiced his worry Britain could become an "island of strangers" if immigration was not tackled.

Luke Tryl, the UK director of More in Common, said: "The prime minister's warning that we risk becoming an 'island of strangers' resonates with millions who say they feel disconnected from those around them.

"But it would be a mistake to say that immigration and lack of integration are the sole causes of our fragmenting social fabric."

The Times

19 May 2025

Britons feel detached from society and distrustful of strangers

Britons feel disconnected from society, wary of other people and worried about community tensions, according to a survey.

A poll of more than 13,000 British adults found that 50 per cent said they felt disengaged and 44 per cent said that they sometimes felt like a stranger in their own country.

The study marks the inception of a national project, This Place Matters, focused on strengthening social bonds and backed by the UCL Policy Lab, the campaign group Citizens UK and More In Common.

The Independent

17 May 2025

Talks over winter fuel payment U-turn ‘intensify’ as Labour bids to repair relationship with voters

The change is more widely known than any of Labour’s other policies, while around two-thirds of voters dislike it.

Luke Tryl, executive director of polling organisation More In Common, has described it as Labour’s “original sin” and said it had a major impact on the party’s disastrous performance in this month’s elections.

The Spectator

8 May 2025

Welcome to Scuzz Nation

Public anger with the visible decline has been a major factor in driving voters to Reform, according to the pollster Luke Tryl of More in Common. He argues: ‘One of people’s big frustrations is that when it comes to things like fly-tipping, vandalism and shoplifting, it feels like there’s no consequence. Those who do the right thing feel like mugs for doing so.’ In focus groups just before the elections he recorded voters across every background describing the country as ‘a shambles’, ‘effed up’ and in decline. Seven in ten voters will tell you the country is getting worse.

The Times

4 May 2025

Nigel Farage has blown apart two-party politics. Here’s what’s next

Luke Tryl of the pollsters More in Common, who ran focus groups in Runcorn on Friday night for the campaign group 38 Degrees with voters who switched from Labour to Reform, said: “We heard three things that ought to be a wake-up call for the government.

First a determination to give the government a kick up the backside. Second real anger over the decision to means-test the winter fuel allowance and restrict disability benefits. Third, a feeling in this election at least it was worth rolling the dice on Nigel Farage.”

Vicky, a supermarket assistant, was typical of those who see little change from a Labour government: “I’m getting up at half past four in the morning, going to work. I’ve got a mortgage and stuff on my own, but I don’t live now. I just survive.”