Only one in three Britons has faith in UK-US special relationship – poll

Barely a third of Britons believe the UK still has a “special relationship” with the US, a poll has found, as Donald Trump prepares to touch down for his second state visit.

The US president is due to arrive in Britain on Tuesday for a two-day trip during which he will meet the King and the Prime Minister.

But a survey carried out by Ipsos UK found just 36% of people agreed with the idea that there was a “special relationship” between the two countries.

Although this was higher than the 30% who said the same in the immediate wake of Mr Trump’s sweeping tariffs, imposed in April this year, it is well down on the 51% who believed in the special relationship at the start of Joe Biden’s presidency in 2021.

But despite pessimism about the UK-US relationship, MPs were much more positive, with 73% saying the special relationship still existed, including 84% of Labour MPs.

Tom Fife-Schaw, managing director at Ipsos UK, said the findings showed a “perhaps surprising resilience in parliamentary faith in the special relationship”.

He said: “The confidence among Labour MPs likely reflects the current Government’s diplomatic successes in rebuilding bridges with Washington, although that may now be shaken by the recent news about Lord Mandelson.”

The Ipsos poll also found that 61% of British people said they did not like Mr Trump, and a similar proportion believed the UK did not need a leader like him.

But despite opposition to the president, almost half said they thought the state visit should go ahead and only a third backed protests against Mr Trump.

Opposition to the state visit had fallen significantly, at 34%, having been as high as 44% in March.

Ipsos UK senior director Gideon Skinner said people showed “negative attitudes towards Donald Trump”, but that views had “started to show some recovery since the immediate post-tariff low earlier this year”.