July 2019
Featured in this insight: Central government & non-department public bodies, Local & regional government, Police, crime & community safety
58% of Conservative Party members in favour of death penalty for certain crimes: A survey of Conservative Party members commissioned for Channel 4’s Dispatches programme has revealed 58% would be in favour of reinstating capital punishment for some crimes. A further 37% said that they would not be in support of bringing back the death penalty, which was abolished in Great Britain in 1965 and in Northern Ireland in 1973.
The survey also revealed that more than half the Tory members polled said they believed Islam was a general threat to the ‘British way of life’. Twenty-two percent (22%) said they felt it was ‘generally compatible’. More than four in ten (42%) said that British Society has been damaged through welcoming people from different racial and cultural backgrounds.
The YouGov poll questioned 892 Conservative Party members to look at attitudes across a variety of subjects, including employment, climate change and teaching.
On climate change, while 45% said that they believed what they were being told by scientists about the threat posed by global warming, 46% said they thought that concerns have been exaggerated.
Looking at subjects for educating children in school, almost half (49%) said that they don’t think schools should be responsible for teaching LGBT relationships. More than half (51%) Tory Party members revealed they thought most people who were receiving benefits could, if they tried hard enough’ find employment.
The Dispatches programme, titled, Dispatches: Battle for the Tory Party, looks at concerns that the Conservative Party has moved more to the right. One of the questions in the survey asked if members felt that Donald Trump would make a good Prime Minister in the UK. More than half those polled said ‘yes’ he would, while 43% disagreed, saying he would be a ‘bad’ PM.
When it comes to Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson and the current Conservative Party leadership contest, 52% said Johnson would make the more trustworthy Prime Minister compared to 32% in support of Hunt.
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