News

The Times

6 March 2025

Social media is too toxic and addictive, say Gen Z

The young people who grew up with smartphones say it damages mental health — and that they would keep their own children offline as long as possible.

The polling of nearly 1,700 people was conducted by The New Britain Project and More In Common think tanks on behalf of the National Education Union. It found young people strongly supportive of wider controls on social media — with 62 per cent saying it does more harm than good and only 22 per cent believing the opposite.

The viewpoint spans gender, politics and education levels. Most of this age group said they would try to keep their own children off social media as long as possible.

Financial Times

4 March 2025

Farage may have a Trump problem

In this opinion piece, Luke Tryl discusses new research from More in Common, highlighting potential liabilities associated with President Trump that Reform will need to overcome if they are to position themselves as a credible party of Government, rather than protest.

The Guardian

19 February 2025

Leftwing activists less likely to work with political rivals than other UK groups, study finds

The study by the polling group More in Common finds that 8-10% of the population, whom they classify under the heading “progressive activists”, hold strikingly different views on a range of issues than the rest of Britain.

Luke Tryl, and his co-author Ed Hodgson, found that on a range of political and cultural issues, this group stands out from every other section of the UK electorate.

The authors argue that given this divergence from the rest of the population, it is a particular problem that progressive activists are more likely to misunderstand other voters, criticise them and even refuse to campaign alongside them.

Financial Times

11 February 2025

Kemi Badenoch and Keir Starmer’s battle of weaknesses

Part of the Labour government’s problem is that, in the absence of a set of clear principles and aims from the centre, inevitably, what dominates is “what do voters really care about”. Most voters do not care about growth in the abstract, and do not think it will benefit them, according to this new poll by More in Common.

The Times

10 February 2025

Diversity is the future — better get used to it

Trevor Phillips: Donald Trump is trampling DEI initiatives but, virtue-signalling silliness apart, companies see value in reflecting changing Britain.

In spite of the many widely recycled examples of progressive overreach, DEI is seen as a plus by most employees. Recent research by the polling company More In Common found that by a margin of 46 per cent to 28 per cent, British workers thought DEI programmes delivered fairer outcomes. Even among “Backbone Conservative” voters, DEI is supported by 39 per cent to 29 per cent.

The Independent

8 February 2025

Top pollster says Farage’s Reform challenge is real

Leading polling experts Professor John Curtice, Lord Hayward and Luke Tryl explain why the surge in support for Reform UK, coupled with a historic collapse for Labour, is a genuine trend in British politics.

Mr Tryl of More In Common said, “There’s no doubt Reform have momentum and we are seeing people who had previously been in the ‘I like Farage but I don’t think he should be PM’ camp now saying, ‘well, we may as well roll the dice given Labour haven’t delivered and Tories had 14 years’.

“But that places a few tests on Reform – what’s the wider policy programme? Can they find the candidates? And, crucially, is 25 per cent a new ceiling?”