Amidst the pressure for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to recognise Palestine as a state, Survation polled 1,053 UK adults on 25th July 2025 on behalf of Ecotricity about their views on Palestine and Israel. Topics included Palestinian statehood, attitudes towards Israel’s actions, and potential sanctions against Israel. One key finding was that almost half of the public polled said they think Palestine should be recognised as a state compared to 13% who said it shouldn’t. However, a third weren’t sure whether Palestinian statehood should or shouldn’t be recognised.

Despite most thinking Israel was justified in defending itself after 7th October 2023, the majority of the public said that Israel has now breached international law. The greater part also believe that it has gone too far in their actions. It is a stark contrast to the 5% of the public who said that Israel has not gone far enough. However, much less than half personally oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza as 32% neither support nor oppose.

This comes amidst a rise in news reports of global calls for Israel to end the violence and for governments to officially declare that Israel is committing war crimes, including a genocide, alongside being responsible for creating a famine in Gaza. In response, over half said the UK should fully suspend arms exports to Israel, whereas 29% think the UK should not. Two fifths want the UK to suspend trade with Israel in general. However, 7 in 10 respondents believe it is not likely that international pressure to end the war will actually bring this into effect. Just a quarter of respondents believe it will. 

Those surveyed also had their say on what they want the outcome to be. Two fifths said they think a two-state solution is fairest for Palestinian statehood. This is over three times as many who said it is fairest for Palestine to be recognised as part of a one-state solution encompassing Israel (13%) and four times as many as the 9% believing it is most fair for Israel to be sovereign over Palestine. Interestingly, a third of respondents are unsure of what would be fairest for Palestinian statehood. This was recurring across the questions; there was consistently a sizeable proportion of respondents who weren’t sure about what should and shouldn’t happen and what is and isn’t justified.

Since the poll, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that the UK will recognise Palestinian statehood in September unless Israel takes certain actions – including agreeing to a ceasefire, ending annexation in the West Bank, allowing full humanitarian aid into Gaza, and recommitting to a two-state solution.

It remains to be seen whether the UK will go ahead with recognition if those conditions are met – even though much of the British public supports recognising Palestinian statehood.

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GET THE DATA.

Survation conducted an online poll of 1,053 adults aged 18+ in the UK on behalf of Ecotricity. Fieldwork was conducted on 25th July 2025. Tables are available here.

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