The vast majority of Britons support routinely arming police officers in the UK, a Sky Data poll reveals.

Some 72% of the public say police officers should be routinely armed, while 20% think the police should not carry guns as a matter of routine.

Excluding those who answered "neither" or "don't know", 78% support arming police and 22% oppose.

The poll was conducted in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in Manchester and London.

Theresa May has come under pressure from Labour for presiding over cuts to numbers of armed police, while she in turn has criticised Jeremy Corbyn over his past opposition to a "shoot to kill" policy in the event of a terror attack.


Support for routinely arming police is consistent across every demographic, although Londoners are slightly less likely to support arming police than people in the rest of the country.

They remain overwhelmingly in favour, however, by 68% to 25% compared with 72% support and 20% opposition across the country as a whole.

A poll of Metropolitan Police officers in February found that 44% think there should be more specialist firearms officers in their force, while 26% said police should be routinely armed.

Only 12% said they would not carry a firearm on duty under any circumstances.

Sky Data interviewed a nationally representative sample of 1,581 Sky customers interviewed by SMS on 5 June, 2017. Data are weighted to the profile of the population.

For full Sky Data tables, please click here.