In September and October 2020 Yonder surveyed 99 MPs in the latest wave of Yonder’s parliamentary research. The research – conducted while the UK continued to tackle the coronavirus pandemic and MPs adapted to the impact of restrictions on their own work as well as on their constituents – found that:
- MPs across the House of Commons remain most concerned about healthcare and the NHS amid the coronavirus pandemic. 91% of MPs mention concerns about the NHS/healthcare, which is almost unchanged since July’s 93%.
- Concerns about the economy, employment and business support surged in April and remain high among MPs. 67% express concerns linked to the economy and such concern is consistent across the two main parties.
- Brexit (31%), housing (27%) and transport/roads (15%) made up the other issues in the top five. Concerns regarding Brexit have increased – after falling between November 2019 and July 2020 – as the UK’s EU transition draws to a close.
- Climate change and the environment has dropped down the list of concerns. At the start of 2020, one-in-five MPs (22%) mentioned climate change or the environment in their list of major concerns, but that has halved to just 11% of MPs in the October wave of research.
- Concerns about benefits and Universal Credit have also declined throughout 2020. In August 2019, 37% mentioned such concerns and 23% raised them in February 2020. Since then, however, the proportion of MPs mentioning benefits or Universal Credit has dropped to just 7% in October 2020.
About Yonder
Yonder is a consultancy that blends research, strategy and imagination to unlock opportunity and deliver business performance.
Launched in October 2020, Yonder brings together the expertise of four specialist businesses: the award-winning research and consultancy of Populus, the brand and business strategy of BrandCap, and the insight-led innovation of Decidedly. The state-of-the-art data capture of Populus Data Solutions has rebranded to Yonder Data Solutions.
Yonder has a team of 175 researchers, data analysts, strategists, creatives, culture experts and innovators based in London, New York and Hong Kong.
Yonder’s clients include Amazon, BT, Costa Coffee, Lane Crawford, Marks & Spencer, Nationwide, Premier League, Oriental Bank, RBS, Rosewood Hotels and Toyota.
If you’d like to find out more, please contact hello@yonderconsulting.com.