The Future of the British Monarchy 3: Sep 2025 -


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Welcome to the thread The Future of the British Monarchy, Part 3

Commencing September 1st, 2025

The previous thread can be found here


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Queen Claude

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www.independent.co.uk

Support for monarchy at record low, survey reveals

This is the lowest level of support recorded since the National Centre for Social Research began tracking public opinion 42 years ago
www.independent.co.uk www.independent.co.uk

Support for monarchy at record low, survey reveals​

This is the lowest level of support recorded since the National Centre for Social Research began tracking public opinion 42 years ago​

Aine Fox
Thursday 11 September 2025 08:16 BST

Support for the monarchy has hit a record low, according to new research.

Although more than half of people favour keeping the royals over an elected head of state

The proportion of people believing it is important to keep the monarchy has fallen from 86 per cent, when the question was first asked in 1983 for the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey, to 51 per cent in 2024.



www.newsweek.com

King Charles' Monarchy hits "lowest" popularity since "records began"

King Charles III is overseeing a monarchy that is much less popular than in 1983—and opposed by most young people.
www.newsweek.com www.newsweek.com

King Charles' Monarchy Hits 'Lowest' Popularity Since 'Records Began'​

Published Sep 11, 2025 at 12:01 AM EDT
In 1983, 86 percent of U.K. adults thought the royal family were important compared to 51 percent in 2024, according to the British Social Attitudes survey released by the National Centre for Social Research on Thursday.

At the same time, support for abolishing the Monarchy has risen from 3 percent to 15 percent during that time. Those who felt it was unimportant but who stopped short of backing abolition rose from 10 percent in 1983 to 31 percent in 2024.



www.aol.com

Support for monarchy at record low, survey reveals

This is the lowest level of support recorded since the National Centre for Social Research began tracking public opinion 42 years ago
www.aol.com www.aol.com

morningstaronline.co.uk

Support for monarchy dips to record low, survey shows

SUPPORT for the monarchy has plummeted to a record low, new research revealed today.Backing for the monarchy dropped from 86 per cent in 1983, when the British Social Attitudes was first conducted, to 51 per cent by 2024.Meanwhile, 15 per cent of people now favour abolishing the monarchy, up...
morningstaronline.co.uk morningstaronline.co.uk
 
So only 15% of people favour abolishing the monarchy. Considering that only just over 25% of people approve of either the Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition, that still seems pretty good to me.

The Morning Star, founded as the newspaper of the Communist Party, doesn't exactly offer an unbiased view on these matters! The Independent, despite its name, is pretty left-wing too. I'd think that the Telegraph or the Mail would put a very different spin on it.

This was probably bound to happen after the death of the late Queen, though. No offence to the rest of the Royal Family, but she'd been with us for so long.
 
Fortunately, in the case of public polls, one can peruse the polling data and not need to rely on reading spin. ;)

Unfortunately, the National Centre for Social Research chooses not to release its datasets on its website, but the website states they can be requested by email.

Here are the Centre's own press releases about its latest monarchy polling.

natcen.ac.uk

Public support for the monarchy falls to historic low while calls for abolition start to rise | National Centre for Social Research

New findings from the British Social Attitudes survey show how the public’s views towards the monarchy have shifted over the past four decades.
natcen.ac.uk natcen.ac.uk

natcen.ac.uk

Royal Reflections: How British attitudes towards the monarchy have shifted over time | National Centre for Social Research

Tracking shifting attitudes to the monarchy using the British Social Attitudes survey.
natcen.ac.uk natcen.ac.uk
 
Alison H said:
So only 15% of people favour abolishing the monarchy. Considering that only just over 25% of people approve of either the Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition, that still seems pretty good to me.

The Morning Star, founded as the newspaper of the Communist Party, doesn't exactly offer an unbiased view on these matters! The Independent, despite its name, is pretty left-wing too. I'd think that the Telegraph or the Mail would put a very different spin on it.

This was probably bound to happen after the death of the late Queen, though. No offence to the rest of the Royal Family, but she'd been with us for so long.
Click to expand...
The Morning Star! I used to buy that when I was an edgy radical student.

Before I became an adult.
 
The steady decline in people seeing the monarchy as important is a worry IMO, though not a death sentence for monarchy in the UK because at the same time politics has become more fractured and divisive and its been a decade at least now since a long term stable government was in power so 'the alternative' is probably also seen as less viable. But is that a strong bedrock on which to keep the monarchy going? Who knows.
 
I think a lot of people confuse the rf with the monarchy.

If we ever had a referendum this would be a lot clearer. People would have to consider what actual benefits having a president would bring.

We'd have to think about how we elect a president & what powers they'd have. We'd have to write a constitution for a start.

I think if push came to shove most people would rather not bother with the hazzle of it all. Inertia is the monarchy's friend.

A low key & modest monarchy is probably the future. The late queen had a grand court, & so is The King's to a degree, but William's will be very different I suspect.

I think it would take some really dramatic black swan type event to end the monarchy in Britain.
 
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Alison H said:
This was probably bound to happen after the death of the late Queen, though. No offence to the rest of the Royal Family, but she'd been with us for so long.
Click to expand...
Yes, the Queen had achieved a great deal of respect and admiration. It will take time for any future monarch to gain the same status.
 
The monarchy is still quite secure, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon. Also, in a few years, the children of the Prince and Princess of Wales will begin to gain more visibility, and this always brings popularity to the royal family and the monarchy. If William and Kate don't make mistakes, the monarchy will have a bright future ahead of them.
 
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I don't think the British public is in an especially trusting mood toward institutions in general right now (especially young people). That will hurt the monarchy's popularity even without any monarchy-specific circumstances.
 
I think this distrust in establishment institutions is widespread all over the West these days.

In the sixties it was mostly the young having no faith in "the system" but now it's common across all sorts of different demographics.
 
The latest You Gov favourability ratings - October 2025 - have been released. The field work was 26-27 October. At face value, the scandal and media noise around Prince Andrew remains contained and appears to only have impacted his own favourability rather than the wider family. The Monarchy remains resilient.

yougov.co.uk

Royal family favourability trackers, October 2025 | YouGov

91% of Britons have a negative opinion of Prince Andrew, the most ever recorded by YouGov
yougov.co.uk yougov.co.uk


1761830474477.png
 
Good opinion piece with regards to all the column inches being written of recent on the future of the monarchy. This is not to say that change, transparency and discipline is not urgently needed in the institution for long term stability, however there is ample manouvre room for greater decisiveness and reform in due course.

thecritic.co.uk

The British monarchy has never been more secure | Sebastian Milbank | The Critic Magazine

Is it game over for the British monarchy? As yet another scandal rocks the royal family, and another prince limps away from the palace minus his titles, speculation that the clock is ticking for the…
thecritic.co.uk thecritic.co.uk

Archived article - The British monarchy has never been more secure | Sebastian Milbank |…

Extract
Ultimately, like almost every thoughtless article on the future of the monarchy, it appears as if written in an historical and political void, in which the actual context of day to day British politics and public opinion does not exist. It’s easy to talk in highly abstract terms about the theoretical unsustainability of the monarchy, or the damning nature of the latest scandal, but what would have to happen in reality for a republic to come about?

In the first instance, there is no clear constitutional mechanism for abolishing the monarchy. Judges, military officers and policemen all take oaths to the King — not parliament. British democracy, having been entirely suppressed in Cromwell’s Commonwealth, emerged and took its current constitutional form in the context of a constitutional monarchy. To now eliminate the crown would involve the creation of an entirely new constitutional order. To achieve change on this scale, you would need a decisive, immensely popular government, a deeply unpopular monarchy, and a political consensus in favour of a new form of government.

Back in the real world, only 21 per cent of the country see Keir Starmer favourably, with 72 per cent viewing him unfavourably, making him the most unpopular Prime Minister in British history. By contrast, despite the Prince Andrew scandal, the King is seen positively by 62 per cent of the nation, and the royal family in general is still esteemed by 59 per cent of the country. The heir to the throne is seen still more positively, with 76 per cent of the public backing Prince William. In fact polling shows that the most unpopular royals after Prince Andrew are those who chose to walk away from the institution — Prince Harry and Meghan.

Royal family favorability ratings in couple of posts above. Political favourability ratings below.
1762095458980.png
 
If you work out the net approval ratings for the royals (positive - negative excluding any don't knows) you get:

Anne +62
William + 61
Catherine +60
Charles +33
Sophie +40
Edward +33
Camilla +4
Beatrice +13
Eugenie +12
Harry -28
Meghan -45
Andrew -89

So looking at the "working royals" every single one of them has a higher net favourability rating than any politician at present according to the polling - many by a considerable way.
 
tommy100 said:
If you work out the net approval ratings for the royals (positive - negative excluding any don't knows) you get:

Anne +62
William + 61
Catherine +60
Charles +33
Sophie +40
Edward +33
Camilla +4
Beatrice +13
Eugenie +12
Harry -28
Meghan -45
Andrew -89

So looking at the "working royals" every single one of them has a higher net favourability rating than any politician at present according to the polling - many by a considerable way.
Click to expand...

I agree with your post but out of curiosity, how did you arrive at Anne at +62? Her postive is 70 and negative 11 which equals a net of +59. Am I missing something?

I get, in descending order:

William + 61
Catherine +60
Anne +59
Sophie +40
Charles +33
Edward +33
Beatrice +13
Eugenie +12
Camilla +4
Harry -28
Meghan -45
Andrew -89
 
Camilla’s position as Queen Consort in this polling is diabolical, really. The ghost of Diana still continues to loom over her (and Charles) in one form or another, imho.
It will be interesting too to see where Eugenie and Beatrice end up in the next YouGov poll, considering various media articles in the last couple of weeks over what they knew about Epstein and their parents’ activities.
 
There is a new documentary series on BBC (One and iPlayer) starting from tomorrow - What's the Monarchy For? - where David Dimbleby takes a personal look at the monarchy's role and its future in a changing world.

He wrote an InDepth story on the BBC website today, trailing the documentary:

www.bbc.co.uk

Can Prince William's 'ordinary Joe' approach win the monarchy more support?

Polls suggest public approval for the monarchy has declined, which raises the question of what King Charles and Prince William could do to win back more support for the institution.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

To watch the documentary:

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC One - What's the Monarchy For? - Episode guide

All episodes of What's the Monarchy For?
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Promotional coverage:

Telegraph - David Dimbleby interview: Is Charles really above politics?

Times - David Dimbleby: Why doesn’t our ultra-rich King pay more tax?

This type of documentary is par for the course, and largely harmless, but good to see the reporters subtly contrasting his rhetoric on the BRF with his views on the BBC - another British Insititution in more dire straits.

The Times included this:

He also wants the World Service to be fully funded by the Foreign Office again: “It used to be, until bloody George Osborne, who gave the royal family their biggest bonanza payout ever, while telling the BBC it had to pay for the World Service.”
 
I don't think the future of the BRF will depend on whether the public want it, as the public have next to no say in it. It will depend on whether the main players themselves want to partake in that life. If William's children decide they want private lives it's as good as gone as there are no feasible family members to step up. When the Duke of Windsor left there were a number of siblings who could have replaced him, that is not the case now.
 
I agree with most of Dimbleby's points. Certainly when I speak to friends or family these are the same issue which keep coming up (so in that sense whether, for example, the financing really is an issue is irrelevant if the majority of the public see it as so)
 
The net positive numbers are interesting as well:
William: 62
Catherine: 62
Anne: 58
Sophie: 38
Edward: 32
Charles: 29
Beatrice: 12
Eugenie: 11
Camilla: -3
Harry: -29
Meghan: -47
Andrew: -86

Sophie and Edward end up higher than Charles in that case. William and Catherine are at the same percentage. And Camilla (barely), Harry, Meghan and Andrew all end up with a net negative.
 
The breakdown by age is interesting and indeed as the net numbers show Anne Edward and Sophie have lower negative numbers but also lower positive numbers, not surprising given they are much more low key. Interestingly both Edward and Anne have better numbers with 18-24 yr olds than 24-65 year olds- maybe the influence of social media and Netflix (for Anne especially)
 
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