YouGov’s quirkier survey questions reveal a nation divided on everything from homosexuality to cooking – not just Brexit

If you think Britain has felt like a divided country since the European Union referendum, you are not alone. Since June 2016, YouGov’s surveys have consistently shown that leave voters and remain voters are likely to argue about just about everything. Here are some of the things that set them apart.

Leave voters want well-done steaks

Nearly a quarter of leave voters (23%) say they prefer their steaks well done, compared with only 12% of remain voters. The most popular way to cook steak for remain voters is “medium rare”. Six percent of both remain and leave voters say ketchup is their favourite sauce to go with a steak.

They really like eating meat

Surveyed in April 2017 about the environmental impact of eating meat, 24% of leave voters said they were “very unwilling” to consider “eating less meat and fewer meat products in the future”. Only 9% of remain voters felt so strongly carnivorous.

Unless Ed Miliband is doing it

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Theresa May struggles with chips while Ed Miliband struggles with a bacon sandwich. Composite: PA Wire/Rex

Leave voters overwhelming declared that Ed Miliband eating a bacon sandwich was far worse than Theresa May’s chip-eating face: 76% said Ed looked worse; just 6% said Theresa. Remain voters were more evenly matched, with a quarter saying Theresa’s chip moment was worse, and half plumping for Ed.

They are less likely to have watched PMQs

In February 2017 YouGov asked questions about the public’s reactions to prime minister’s question time in the House of Commons. Over half of leave voters, 57%, claimed to have never seen it or any clips of it. Remain voters were slightly more likely to have witnessed the spectacle, although 46% of them still said they hadn’t, raising questions about the extent to which PMQs performances can dictate the political mood outside Westminster.

Leave voters are twice as likely to want to ban the burqa

Seventy percent of leave voters told YouGov they supported “a law against wearing a full body and face veil” aimed at Muslim women. Only 32% of remain voters felt the same way.

And half as likely to think that gollies are offensive

Asked “Do you think it is or is not acceptable to sell or display a golliwog doll?”, 71% of leave voters said “acceptable”. Remain voters scored 37%.

Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, who commissioned this particular piece of research, said: “The remain/leave split, to be honest, was pretty much what I expected. Research shows that age, identity and values – as opposed to, say, economics – played a big part in which way people voted, and they’re also exactly what drives what people think about gollies.”



More leave voters thought Donald Trump would be a good president

Asked on the weekend of his inauguration whether Trump would make a “great” or “good” president of the US, 30% of leave voters said they believed he would.

Zero percent of remain voters said they thought Trump would be a “great” president. Three pecent said he would be “good”.

They are more likely to want to leave the Paris climate change agreement

Pulling out of the Paris accord would mean the UK joining the US as the only major nations outside the global agreement. That’s where 26% of leave voters would prefer to be. Only 5% of remain voters want to quit.

Leave voters also want out of Eurovision

Forty-one percent of leave voters say they have made their mind up that the UK should permanently exit the Eurovision song contest.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Leave voters have made their minds up – no more Bucks Fizz. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

They are sure Gibraltar is British

Seventy-one percent of leave voters believe Gibraltar should “remain a self-governing British territory”. Just over half of remain voters, 54%, share this view.

Additionally, asked: “If the status of Gibraltar was the only thing preventing the UK from getting a much better Brexit deal, would you support passing at least some sovereignty over the territory to Spain?” 48% of leave voters said they would prefer the worse deal.

They are keener on reducing time limits on abortions, or banning them altogether

In September 2015 YouGov surveyed members of the Conservative party about their views on abortion. They also asked how people intended to vote in the referendum. Even within this small sample, there was a marked difference between leave and remain voters.

There was a lead (30% to 25%) among leave voters in preferring there to be a reduction in the abortion time limit, to below 24 weeks. And twice as many leave-voting Tories (8%) as remain-voting Tories (4%) wanted to see a total ban on abortions.

They are less likely to think prison is about rehabilitation

Leave and remain voters have very different views on the purpose of prison. Asked what should be the primary reason for prison, leave voters said “to punish the criminal” (35%), to “act as a deterrent” (24%) or to “get violent criminals off the street” (20%).

By contrast, 41% of remain voters said the main purpose of prison should be to “rehabilitate the morals and skills of criminals”.

They think the royal family have shown Princess Diana’s memory too little respect

On the 20th anniversary of her death, YouGov asked the British public whether the royal family had shown the right amount of respect to Princess Diana. A third of leave voters (33%) felt the royals had shown too little respect to her memory. Only a quarter of remain voters felt the same.

They think the Doctor in Doctor Who votes Tory

Asked which way fictional characters would vote in the 2017 general election, 12% of leave voters said the Doctor would vote for the Conservatives – more than thought the character would vote for any other party. Remain voters were more likely to think the Doctor would vote Green or Labour.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Peter Capaldi reacts to the news he has been playing a Tory Time Lord all these years. Photograph: Simon Ridgway/BBC

They think the BBC should be privatised

Leave voters are twice as likely as remain voters to think the BBC should be privatised. Thirty-two percent of leave voters would prefer a privately run corporation.

They see news with views as a problem

In a survey looking at attitudes to “fake news”, leave voters were much more worried about “news organisations that are honest, but have a clear political viewpoint or agenda”. Thirty-two percent of leave voters described this as a problem, compared with 17% of remain voters.

They think our schools are well funded

Asked “generally speaking, do you think schools are well funded or in financial difficulty?”, 34% of leave voters said they were well funded. That’s twice as many as the 17% of remain voters who think education budgets are ample.

They are more likely to think fracking is safe

Thirty-five percent of leave voters think fracking is safe; only 19% of remain voters back the technology. On the whole, though, both leave and remain voters have doubts about fracking.

Attitudes to terrorism and privacy

In the context of terrorism, “more should be done to help the security forces combat terrorism, even if this means the privacy of ordinary people suffer” was a statement that 64% of leave voters could agree with, compared with 44% of remain voters.

Leave voters, in the same survey, were also more likely to be concerned about terrorism. Over half of them (53%) think the the threat of terrorism in Britain has increased a lot in the last five years, compared with 33% of remain voters who feel the same.

Almost half of leave voters consider gay sex unnatural

Asked “personally speaking, do you think gay sex is or is not natural?” just under a half of leave voters – 47% – say they believe gay sex is unnatural. Twenty-one percent of remain voters agree with them.

They are more likely to think being gay is a choice

Asked what makes people gay, less than half of leave voters echoed Lady Gaga and said “born this way”. Thirty-five percent agreed with the statement: “Being gay or lesbian is just the way some people choose to live,” compared with 28% of remain voters.

You’re having a giraffe, mate

In February 2017, YouGov surveyed the British public on their knowledge of cockney rhyming slang. Asked if they could correctly identify the meaning of 10 phrases, including “Jack Jones”, “Ruby Murray” and “dog and bone”, leave voters significantly outperformed remain voters, getting a higher score on every question.

Leave voters say no to facial hair

In November 2016 YouGov divided the sexes and asked them how they felt about men having facial hair. More than half of leave-voting women (53%) said they preferred men without a beard, compared to 40% of remain voters.

The men were asked if they had facial hair, and leave voters revealed that by a narrow margin more of them (64%) were clean-shaven than their remain-voting brethren (60%).



This possibly explains how short-lived Nigel Farage’s moustache was, and suggests the British gene pool may continue to evolve with parallel leave and remain identities.