At least half of the British public believes Israel is committing genocide in Gaza , according to a new poll released on Tuesday, with majorities also backing tougher sanctions against Israel and distancing Britain from its longstanding ally.
The YouGov survey, commissioned by the Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU), found that 50% of respondents believe Israel's military campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide, compared with 17% who do not.
The poll, conducted between 2 and 3 July among 2,125 adults, also found that 55% believe the UK should not be allied with Israel, while only 15% said it should.
"The main takeaway is simply that increasingly British public opinion and the positions of the British government are polar opposites," Chris Doyle, director of CAABU, told The New Arab .
"We also see throughout this latest poll that the British public is keener to see action to stop what Israel is doing, be it a full arms embargo, not the partial one we have, be it a ban on settlement trade, be it sanctions against Israeli ministers," he added.
The survey found broad support for a range of measures against Israel.
Almost half of respondents (48%) backed a ban on trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, compared with 16% who opposed it. Another 49% supported banning the sale or marketing of settlement properties in the UK, while 15% opposed such a measure.
The findings come after an Israeli property fair in Edgware promoting homes in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank sparked protests and calls for a police investigation. Support also extended to wider economic measures, with 45% backing a trade embargo on Israel, compared with 21% opposed, while 48% supported tariffs and import restrictions against Israel, against 20% who did not.
The poll also found that 48% supported sanctions on the financial assets of individuals linked to Israel, while 57% backed suspending UK arms exports to the country. Nineteen percent and 17% opposed those measures, respectively.
Doyle said the findings highlighted a widening gap between public opinion and government policy.
"Although the British government has taken some measures, including sanctioning two Israeli ministers and some settler groups, it still falls way behind the expectations of the British public," he said.
He also criticised successive governments for refusing to engage with the question of whether Israel's actions amount to genocide.
"It is alarming that despite reports from UN agencies, legal experts and genocide scholars that conclude what is happening amounts to genocide, the British government continues to refuse to engage with that debate," he said.
The poll also revealed notable differences across party lines.
Among Labour voters, 67% said they believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, alongside 66% of Liberal Democrat voters and 65 percent of Green Party supporters.
Among Conservative voters, 33% said Israel's actions constitute genocide, compared with 26% who disagreed.
Doyle said this suggested the Conservative front bench was "out of kilter with a lot of their own party support".
Reform UK was the only major party whose supporters were more likely to reject the genocide allegation than accept it, with 42 percent saying Israel was not committing genocide compared with 25 percent who believed it was.
Doyle said the findings also carried significant implications for Andy Burnham , who is widely expected to succeed Keir Starmer as prime minister following the latter's resignation.
"He's going to have to look at a situation where a huge number of Labour voters consider it to be genocide," Doyle said.
"It's similar levels for the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party, who are obviously competing for a similar range of votes."
He added that Burnham risked ignoring both public opinion and growing pressure from within his own parliamentary party, where there was "a groundswell" of support among backbench Labour MPs for stronger sanctions on Israel.