Two-thirds of the British public back Harris, with only one in six hoping for a second Trump term
In just over a fortnight, polls will close across the United States and the winner of the 2024 presidential election will be revealed, with either Democratic candidate Kamala Harris becoming the first woman president or Republican Donald Trump returning to power after four years out of office.
It has been a tightly fought contest, with YouGov’s MRP projection showing ‘tossups’ in key swing states, meaning both candidates still have all to play for in the final days of the campaign.
While we in Britain obviously do not get a say in the election, that’s not to say people aren’t interested, with four in ten Britons (42%) saying they are paying at least a fair amount of attention to the current race for the White House.
Part of this is driven by personal investment, with half of the public (49%) saying it matters to them who wins, but it is also likely spurred by a sense that the result won’t just impact Americans, with three quarters of Britons (76%) saying it matters to the UK who ends up president.
Britain’s view on Harris vs Trump
While the election might be a knife-edge contest across the pond, preferences here are far more one-sided. Almost two thirds of Britons (64%) want current vice president Kamala Harris to be the next president of the United States, against just one in six (18%) who are hoping for a second Trump term.
Harris’s 46-point lead over Trump represents a noticeable improvement over her predecessor Joe Biden. In May, when he was still the Democratic candidate, YouGov found that 55% of Britons wanted Biden to win the election, compared to 18% who favoured Trump.
Britons’ preference for Harris over Trump is clear across nearly all parts of the public, but is at its highest among Labour and Lib Dem voters, more than eight in ten of whom (83-86%) want Harris to become the first woman president.
Conservatives are less overwhelming in their support for the Democratic candidate, but nearing six in ten (57%) still hope that Harris wins out in the end, more than double the quarter of Tories (25%) who want a Trump triumph in a fortnight. Such limited enthusiasm for Trump among Conservatives stands in contrast to leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick’s endorsement of the Republican’s run for office.
Reform UK voters are the sole exception among the British public in wanting to see Trump return to the White House, with a small majority (54%) backing Trump and just a quarter (26%) favouring Harris. Even among wider Leave voters, Harris is preferred by 48% to 29%.
As in America, support for Donald Trump is higher among British men (24%) than women (12%). Nonetheless, these Trump-supporting men are still a minority, being clearly outnumbered by the six in ten British men (60%) who favour a Harris win.
Contrary to the age variation between parties seen in British elections, support for Harris and Trump among Britons is relatively consistent across age groups, with those favouring a Harris victory only ranging from 61% among 25-49 year olds to 70% among 18-24 year olds.
How do Britons see leading American politicians and parties?
Such a ‘landslide’ against Donald Trump in the minds of Britons shouldn’t be surprising. Only one in six Britons (18%) have a favourable opinion of the former president and just one in nine (11%) see the wider Republican party in a good light. This stands against more than three quarters (77%) who have a negative view of Trump, including two-thirds (66%) who say their opinion of him is ‘very unfavourable’.
By contrast, 60% of Britons have a favourable opinion of Kamala Harris, with less than a quarter (23%) seeing her negatively at present. While attitudes to Joe Biden are less positive, with half of Britons (53%) having an unfavourable view of the president, against a third (35%) with a favourable opinion, this still leaves a higher proportion of the British public with a good opinion of Biden than with any UK politician.
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Photo: Getty
