The accession of King Charles has done nothing to boost support for the monarchy, according to a new YouGov poll.

Support among Brits remains at 60%, showing no increase in support since June this year, despite weeks of positive coverage of the new monarch and heir.

In previous years other research across the polling industry showed much higher support for the monarchy - for example, in 2012 when Britons were asked whether they'd prefer a monarchy or elected head of state, 73% supported keeping a monarchy.

Meanwhile 40% now either want the monarchy abolished (25%) or don’t know (15%).

Campaign group Republic says the 15% are likely to have serious doubts about the monarchy but have yet to jump into the abolish camp.

Graham Smith, speaking for Republic, said today:

“With support for abolition remaining at a quarter of the population, it’s telling that a further 15% ‘don’t know’ whether or not they want to keep the monarchy.”

“This can only really mean lots of people have serious concerns about the monarchy but haven’t yet decided on supporting the alternative.”

“As this debate takes hold, I’m confident we’ll see more people move from pro-monarchy to don’t know and a lot of don’t knows move to support the democratic alternative.”

“After the carefully choreographed accession of Charles this is a blow for the royals and shows the monarchy’s future is far from secure.”


Polling also raises question's about the BBC's royal coverage. The 15% undecideds is a clear indication of unease with our anti-democratic system, but a lack of knowledge of what the democratic alternative would look like. This again reveals the extent to which republican voices and views are excluded from the public debate, especially on the BBC. For 15% of this country to be unsure of the legitimacy of our means of determining our head of state, shows how sorely we need to have a proper conversation on the rights and wrongs of the monarchy in general, and a failure of the BBC to properly inform and educate the public.


"All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 1,690 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 14th - 15th December 2022. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+)."

See the poll results