LORD ASHCROFT POLLS: MAJORITY OF WELSH VOTERS BACK THE MONARCHY AHEAD OF CORONATION

LONDON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Most voters in Wales would vote to keep the monarchy in a referendum tomorrow, new polling from Lord Ashcroft has found. However, most believe the royal family needs to be scaled back and modernised, and more believe the monarchy feels like an English institution than something shared by the whole UK.

Findings from the survey include:

• 54% of voters in Wales said they would choose to remain a constitutional monarchy in a referendum tomorrow, while 23% would vote to become a republic. 23% said they didn't know or would not vote. (Voters in England would keep the monarchy by 57% to 22%, and in Scotland by 46% to 32%. Voters in Northern Ireland said they would choose a republic by 46% to 42%).
• 70% of Welsh voters choosing the status quo said the monarchy was a good thing for the country; the remainder said the alternative we ended up with would probably be worse (23%) or that the process of changing would probably be too disruptive (5%).
• Only 30% of pro-republic voters in Wales said becoming a republic would bring real, practical benefits; 66% said the monarchy was wrong in principle and should be replaced whether there were practical benefits or not.
• 64% said they had a favourable view of Prince William, making him the most popular living royal in Wales (72% had a favourable view of Queen Elizabeth). 63% were favourable towards Princess Anne, the Princess of Wales and the late Princess Diana, and 57% towards King Charles. 21% had a favourable view of Prince Harry, and 15% of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
• Majorities in Wales agreed that the monarchy means we have more stability in the country than we would have without it (64%), that the King can unite everyone in the country no matter who they voted for (57%), and that the monarchy "might seem a strange system in this day and age but it works" (66%). Two thirds (67%) thought the royal family did a better job of connecting with ordinary people than elected politicians.
• However, by 48% to 43% people in Wales said the monarchy felt like mostly an English thing rather than an institution shared by the whole UK. They were evenly divided as to whether they felt the monarchy was for everyone, or only for some types of people. 69% said the royal family should be scaled back and its cost significantly reduced, and 76% that it needed to modernise to survive.
• Just under a third (32%) said the titles of the Prince and Princess of Wales should be abolished since they had no real connection with Wales; 51% thought they represented a valuable tradition that should be maintained.
• Asked to choose between two statements, 69% saw the monarchy more as "a valuable force for stability and continuity", and 31% as "part of a colonial past that has no place in the country today." By 58% to 24%, people in Wales rejected the idea that the King should issue an apology for the UK and the monarchy's part in this history of slavery and colonialism.
• Asked where their sympathies lay between Prince Harry and the rest of the royal family, 11% of Welsh voters said they sympathised more with Harry and Meghan, and 39% with the King and Prince William; 15% sympathised with both, and 29% with neither.
• Lord Ashcroft's polling found six countries in which more said they would vote to become a republic than to keep the monarchy: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Jamaica and the Solomon Islands.

659 adults in Wales were interviewed online between 3 and 15 March 2023, and 4 focus groups were held with people from Cardiff, Swansea, Aberystwyth and North Wales. A total of 22,701 adults were interviewed in the 15 countries in which King Charles is head of state. The full report, Uncharted Realms: The Future of the Monarchy in the UK and Around the World, together with full data for each country, is available for free at LordAshcroftPolls.com

LORD ASHCROFT KCMG PC is an international businessman, philanthropist, pollster and author. He is a former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party and honorary Chairman of the International Democrat Union. His recent political books include Going For Broke: The Rise of Rishi Sunak, First Lady: Intrigue at the Court of Carrie and Boris Johnson, and Red Knight: The Unauthorised Biography of Sir Keir Starmer.

LordAshcroftPolls.com  //  LordAshcroft.com  //  Twitter/Facebook: @LordAshcroft

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