Local election: majority of Reform voters back climate targets
More than half voters who planned to vote for Reform UK in local elections on 1st May support policies to stop climate change and put in place targets accordingly to keep the UK on track.
By Alasdair Johnstone
@A_SJohnstoneShare
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New polling from Focaldata for ECIU conducted the week of the local elections has found that more than half (54%) of voters who planned to vote for Reform UK in the local elections on 1st May support “policies to stop climate change and put in place targets accordingly to keep the UK on track”.
Polling conducted by Focaldata of 1524 Adults in England between 28th – 30th April 2025. showed that the issues that determined the voting decision of those intending to vote for Reform UK were immigration and asylum (at 66%), health care and the NHS (39%) and the economy (39%). Only 12% selected energy policy and 4% climate change and environmental issues.
For those voting Conservative, two-thirds (66%) said they support “net zero by 2050” despite the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch recently declaring the target “impossible”.
Across the public as a whole, renewable energy and clean technology is seen as the best economic growth opportunity (32%), beating manufacturing (31%) and healthcare (25%), financial services (23%) and oil and gas is (17%).
Six in ten (60%) say green and low-carbon industries are the best way for the UK to regrow its industrial base compared to just 40% saying the transition threatens it.
In February, CBI Economics produced a report looking at the size of the net zero economy. It showed it was worth nearly £84bn in value to the UK economy and grew 10% in the last year.
Of those who voted Labour at the general election last year but now planned to vote Liberal Democrat or Green, 60% said they would be more likely to support a party that pledged to go faster on polices to tackle climate change and reach net zero.
Recent analysis from Persuasion UK showed that Labour would be more at risk of losing votes to Greens or Liberal Democrats if they were to row back on their net zero targets than they would at retaining so called “reform curious” Labour voters.