New defence-focused polling conducted on behalf of Adam Smith Insights and shared with the UK Defence Journal suggests the British public is increasingly anxious about global security, with a majority saying they feel less safe than they did five years ago amid the ongoing war in Ukraine and tensions in the Middle East.
The findings indicate that 52% of respondents feel less safe than they did in 2021. Less than 20% of people across all political parties said they feel safer or somewhat safer than five years ago. The polling also suggests that more than half of both men and women report feeling less secure, while older people were identified as the group feeling the most unsafe compared with how they felt in 2021.
When asked directly about global security risks, the polling found that around two-thirds of the public now feel more anxious than they did five years ago. It also states that over 60% of people across all political parties feel either somewhat or much more anxious about global security risks, with strong majorities recorded across every age group. The results suggest fewer than 10% of people over 35 feel much or somewhat less anxious than they did previously.
The survey also highlights strong public support for rapid modernisation of the UK’s Armed Forces, particularly around drones. It claims drones now account for more than 80% of casualties in the war in Ukraine and asked whether the UK should equip its troops with the latest drone technologies. In response, 79% of respondents strongly or somewhat agreed, while only 4% disagreed to any extent.
Support for expanding drone capability was high across the political spectrum, according to the figures. The polling found that 82% of Labour 2024 voters supported equipping UK troops with the latest drone technologies, while Conservative 2024 voters showed the highest backing at 88%. By current party identification, the polling suggested strong majorities across all parties, including 64% of Green supporters. The survey also reported that over 70% of respondents in every age group agreed that UK troops should be equipped with the latest drone technologies, with those aged 65+ showing the strongest support at 86%.
The polling also indicates broad support for investment in artificial intelligence and autonomous systems for military use, citing the growing defence technology competition with China and Russia. Around two-thirds of respondents supported the UK investing in AI and autonomous technologies for defence, with Conservative voters again recorded as the most supportive group, with 75% backing such investment. The results also suggested that 44% of men and 25% of women strongly support the UK investing in AI and autonomous systems for military use.
Opposition to investment in AI and autonomous systems was recorded as relatively limited, with the polling suggesting that only 7% of men and 9% of women strongly oppose or somewhat oppose the UK investing in such technologies. The figures also state that majorities across all age groups support the UK investing in AI and autonomous systems, with all groups over 50% in favour.
The polling was conducted between 3 and 5 November 2025 using a sample of 2,052 adults in Great Britain. The survey was collected using online panels and weighted to match the GB adult population profile across age, gender, region, ethnicity, and 2024 general election vote. The methodology states that respondents were filtered for completion quality, including speeding, and that incomplete or invalid responses were excluded. No imputation was applied. The poll has a stated margin of error of plus or minus 2.2%, with a median completion time of approximately 3.5 minutes.
In other news, bears are Catholic and the Pope poos in the woods.
Weird that the survey apparently focussed on drones and AI- surely the general public aren’t the people to ask?
And no opinion on whether the public is willing to accept sacrifices in the form of tax rises or spending cuts to fund defence.
Did the survey not ask people what they’d forego to boost defence spending? Currently £60 billion on Defence. £242 billion on the NHS (DHSC). £334 billion on Welfare of which £178 billion on State Pension with a triple lock. Anybody like to sacrifice some of their entitlements so that they can feel safe and secure? Oh and before it’s mentioned, the ODA was £15.3 billion in 2023 and dropping to £9.2 billion in 2027.
Drastically cut foreign aid and stop spending a fortune on housing and giving free goods to illegal immigrants.
And of course, cancel that appalling deal of paying a foreign nation billions to take our own islands in the Indian Ocean off us.
I can say with confidence these would have the widespread blessing of the british public when it comes to funnelling funds to the military
Many wonderful ways to save money for this mouth breather Labour government
I mentioned ODA (that’s foreign aid). It’s already being drastically cut, as I highlighted.
I think you’re being a bit wishy-washy. Any hard suggestions with figures of something you might personally be willing to give-up? A replacement hip? Triple lock on your pension?
Being deliberately provocative as a bit of realism is neccessary in these discussions.
I’d be willing to move to a “double lock” for my pension so potentially free up funds. The discussion then being which of the triad gets binned.
Thanks Steve. Generally the highest figure is NAE (we’re all getting richer, supposedly) and RPI is also higher than CPI. I actually think an average of the 3 may be fairest and certainly easier for politicians to ‘sell’ to voters; they might even get a political concensus on that.
Yes, it would have been better asking people if they are willing to give up the triple lock on pensions to pay for the latest drone technology or pay £100 to see a GP.
The government froze tax bands four years in the future and people in this country and the media s**t a brick and acted like it was the end of the world.
Pensioners had to give up a small winter fuel payment and it was set out like they would all die of frost bite in September.
People in the UK full of s**t, they are all want more public spending with lower taxes. They all feel like they pay enough tax but people earning more than them need to pay more. They further feel that they don’t get enough money from the government but “people” getting more money than them get too much and THEIR benefits should be cut. There is always some other group to blame (rich people, single mothers, immigrants) for all the country’s problems and there is always some magical government policy that if only we canceled it (HS2, NetZero, Foreign Aid, Trident) then we would have loads of money and would not have to pay any tax.
Surveying the British public is about as much use as surveying a nursery class.
They don’t even pay attention to any of this when they vote so no limit in asking them or listening to them
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Just like politicians, we want strong defence but we don’t want to sacrifice anything to pay for it but we are willing to pour money wastefully into the usual suspects with nothing but worse services in return. Pooooootin must be chuckling into his beetroot soup.
But,
That last Paragraph 🙄