A recent poll has revealed that a majority of British voters believe Donald Trump's second presidency has been detrimental to the United Kingdom, and they want Prime Minister Keir Starmer to adopt a more confrontational approach toward the US President.
Poll findings on Trump's impact
According to the survey conducted by Deltapoll for this newspaper, only 11% of voters think Trump's return to the White House has been beneficial for Britain, while 58% consider it harmful. The largest share of respondents—41%—believe Starmer should be more critical of Trump, with over half of those advocating for a significantly tougher stance. In contrast, just 16% think the Prime Minister should ease up on Trump, and less than a quarter feel Starmer has struck the right balance.
Starmer's previous stance and Trump's reaction
Last month, the Mirror reported that voters had ranked Starmer's handling of Trump and the Iran war among his most successful moves since becoming Prime Minister. Despite a year of unexpectedly cordial relations between the Labour leader and the US President, Starmer angered Trump by refusing to participate in his disastrous Middle East campaign. Trump subsequently labeled Starmer 'no Winston Churchill' after the PM declined to allow bombing raids from UK bases.
However, nearly half of those polled (43%) said their opinion of Starmer had not changed due to his stance on Trump's war.
Trump's comments on Starmer's future
Trump has since stated that Starmer has 'plenty of time to recover' from the difficult position he has led Labour into, but only if he reopens the North Sea for oil drilling and strengthens immigration policies. 'If he opened the North Sea and if his immigration policies became strong,' Trump said ahead of the King's visit to Washington DC last month, 'which right now they're not, he can recover, but if he doesn't, I don't think he has a chance.'
The Deltapoll survey interviewed 3,353 British adults online between 26th April and 1st May 2026, including 1,012 respondents in Wales and 1,041 in Scotland. The data have been weighted to be representative of the British adult population as a whole.
