Tuesday 10 September 2002
Majority now disapprove of Blair
For the first time since September 11 last year, most people in the UK say they disapprove of the way Tony Blair is handling the British response to the terrorist attacks in America.
The MORI Social Research Institute has been carefully following trends in British public opinion on this issue. Days after the September 11 attacks, when asked "Do you approve or disapprove of the way Tony Blair is handling the British response to the terrorist attacks on 11 September?", four in five (83%) said they approved and one in 10 (nine percent) said they did not approve.
Since then, there has been a steady decline in the percentage which says it approves, dropping to half (52%) in March. The latest research shows the percentage of those who say they approve has further dropped to just over a third (36%) with half (51%) now saying they disapprove.
Q Do you approve or disapprove of the way Tony Blair is handling the British response to the terrorist attacks on September?
| | 14 Sept | 21 Sept | 25 Sept | 9 Oct | 22 Oct | 1-2 Nov | 22-27 Nov | 15-17 Mar | 5-8 Sept |
|---|
| | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % |
|---|
| Approve | 83 | 76 | 72 | 72 | 68 | 66 | 71 | 52 | 36 |
| Disapprove | 9 | 14 | 19 | 21 | 25 | 22 | 23 | 39 | 51 |
| Don't know | 8 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 12 | 6 | 9 | 12 |
Labour voters are divided: fewer than half (46%) now say they approve of Blair's handling of the situation, while a similar percentage (44%) say they disapprove.
Younger people and men are most supportive, whereas disapproval of Blair's handling of the British response is highest among the over 55s (60% disapprove versus 45% among the under 34s).
George W. Bush has seen a similar decline in the percentage of British people who feel he is handling the American response well — from a 72% high shortly after the attacks, to 35% now — although the percentage which disapproves of Bush's response is still less than half (47%).
Q Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the American response to the terrorist attacks on 11 September?
| | 14 Sept | 21 Sept | 25 Sept | 9 Oct | 22 Oct | 22-27 Nov | 15-17 Mar | 5-8 Sept |
|---|
| | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % |
|---|
| Approve | 72 | 68 | 63 | 70 | 64 | 66 | 50 | 35 |
| Disapprove | 10 | 13 | 24 | 19 | 27 | 24 | 37 | 47 |
| Don't know | 18 | 19 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 18 |
Again, there is a difference between male and female respondents, with a quarter of women (27%) and more than two in five men (45%) approving of Bush's response.
Conservative voters are more likely to approve of Bush (41%) than of Blair (34%).
While this survey reflects public unease at an attack without UN support — 69% of Britons say the UK should only get involved in an attack on Iraq if it has UN support in a separate MORI survey released recently (Europe's View On 9/11), at present the whole issue of war with Iraq is still not seen as big an issue as the NHS by the British public.
Technical note
MORI interviewed a representative sample of 506 members of the general public, by telephone, between 5th-8th September 2002