The “scorcher” is no more. Gone is the jolly tabloid celebration of hot sunny days, Brits with their kit off, silly-season stories about feral seagulls. Instead, our summer months bring news of locals displaced and tourists fleeing wildfires on the continent, UK “firewaves”, and gasping-hot days every few weeks.
The climate conversation – beyond energy security – has slipped down every political party’s list of priorities in recent years. This is because voters, too, worry far more about money, immigration and healthcare than they do about the planet. It feels like a long time ago that the environment was one of the top-three voter concerns, when the global climate summit Cop26 was held in Glasgow in 2021, and during severe floods back in 2019.
But it’s difficult to escape the heat: it affects our health, sleep and work, our childcare arrangements and leisure plans. This has a political impact. As the fourth heatwave this summer grips Britain, the majority of voters say they feel more fearful for the future because of the temperatures they’ve experienced this year.
More than 50 per cent of all Brits say they are more fearful about what’s to come, and more than 48 per cent explicitly say they are more anxious about climate change, according to polling by Survation for Climate Outreach and Round Our Way (groups focusing on how climate change affects day-to-day life in the UK) and the anti-fascist campaign group Hope not Hate.
Even as the Conservative Party denounces its own policy of net zero targets, and Reform UK flirts with “denialist” stances on climate change, their supporters are worried. Tory and Reform-leaning voters are more likely to agree than disagree that the recent heat has made them more fearful for the future.
Fifty-seven per cent of Labour voters, 53 per cent of Conservative voters and 45 per cent of Reform voters say heatwaves make them more fearful for the future. And 58 per cent of Labour voters, 48 per cent of Conservatives and 33 per cent of Reform voters say the heatwaves make them feel more anxious about climate change.
As extreme heat across the UK and Europe sparks an unprecedented intensity and frequency of wildfires, voters have yet to hear new Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s take on how to tackle the climate crisis. Hints have been made that he will take a different stance on North Sea oil and gas extraction from the previous administration, and allow drilling at sites that have already been licensed.
But with the Green Party putting less emphasis on its environmental agenda, and the Lib Dems focusing on river pollution and other local concerns about the natural environment, there is a political risk in failing to address the fears of Britain’s melting electorate.
The polling of 10,014 respondents was carried out by Survation on 22-27 July 2026.
[Further reading: Patients aren’t always honest with their doctors]
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Subscribe here to commentThis and your article entitled ‘Europe’s age of fire – Is it finally time to panic?’ are welcome, but the gauging of public sentiment – panic, anxiety, whatever you choose to call it – only serves to underline how far we are from taking this seriously if people are still in favour more drilling. I’ve noticed a tendency on the BBC to report on the wild fires and ask ‘Is this down to climate change?’ It’s an odd question, like asking if an earthquake is down to seismic activity. We all know the climate is changing, even Marine Le Pen. There’s a far tougher question lurking behind this one that tends to go unasked: ‘Is this down to our addiction to fossil fuels? If so, why are we pretending otherwise?’