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YouGov
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YouGov

British online polling firm; pioneer of MRP sub-regional electoral modelling.

YouGov's 19-20 July 2026 poll showed only a slight shift towards Labour under new PM Andy Burnham, at odds with a Deltapoll survey in the same window that put Labour up eight points, leaving the size of his bounce disputed.

Last refreshed: 24 July 2026 · Appears in 2 active topics

Key Question

How accurate were YouGov's 2026 MRP models when the results came in?

Timeline for YouGov

#13 20 Jul
#12 13 Jul

Recorded the five-week Reform plateau breaking

UK Local Elections 2026: Reform plateau breaks after five weeks
#11 6 Jul

Reform holds 25% through the storm

UK Local Elections 2026
View full timeline →

Background

YouGov is a British internet-based market research company, founded in 2000, headquartered in London and listed on the London Stock Exchange. It pioneered online panel polling across more than 55 countries; its MRP (Multilevel Regression and Post-stratification) model gained credibility after correctly forecasting the 2017 UK general election when most rivals failed.

Its MRP and sub-regional models are now a standard input for newsroom election coverage in the UK, US and Australia, and its Westminster voting-intention tracker has run continuously through the 2026 UK election cycle, putting Reform UK ahead of all parties from early May and holding that lead through five weeks of scrutiny into July.

YouGov's reach extends beyond UK politics into US midterms tracking and cross-topic polling on Foreign Policy questions, where its findings are cited by government, opposition and foreign observers alike as the most credible published benchmark available.

Key Issues
Polling divergence

Pollsters split over Burnham's opening bounce

YouGov's fieldwork of 19-20 July put Reform UK on 23% and Labour on 20%, barely moved from its pre-Burnham numbers, directly contradicting Deltapoll's 17-20 July survey that had Labour up eight points to 28%, level with Reform.

The gap follows a five-week Reform plateau that broke only in YouGov's own 12-13 July fieldwork, when Reform slipped a single point to 24% and the Conservatives and Labour tied at 19%. Two rival methodologies now put Burnham's opening bounce anywhere between zero and eight points, a divergence YouGov's own panel has yet to resolve.

Welsh MRP record

The Welsh forecast proved right

YouGov's final Senedd MRP projected Plaid Cymru on 43 seats and Welsh Labour on just 12, the lowest Welsh Labour share since 1906. The 7 May result vindicated the call: Welsh Labour collapsed to 9 seats, ending 27 years of continuous devolved government under one party.

The projection is now the reference point Welsh strategists use to judge every subsequent poll, a status that rests on the same MRP method that correctly called the 2017 general election when most rivals failed. For YouGov, Wales was the clearest single test of whether that 2017 credibility still holds nine years on, and it did.

Iran base polling

A 58% finding shaped domestic policy

YouGov found in March 2026 that 58% of Britons opposed US use of UK bases for strikes on Iran, against 21% support, a wider margin than the pollster recorded before the 2003 Iraq invasion at a comparable point.

Prime Minister Starmer overrode his own attorney general's advice and granted base access days later without a Commons vote, leaving YouGov's finding as the only public measure of domestic consent for a decision Parliament never approved. The poll remains the domestic-opinion benchmark cited whenever the base-access decision resurfaces.

Common Questions
Was YouGov's 2026 election forecast accurate?
YouGov's Senedd and Holyrood MRPs were broadly accurate. Its English council Reform projection of 2,342 seats proved 38% too high — Reform returned only 1,448 — the worst projection failure in modern UK polling.Source: UK elections 2026 results
What did YouGov polling show about UK public opinion on US bases?
In March 2026, YouGov found 58% of Britons oppose US use of UK military bases for strikes on Iran, with only 21% in support. The data was cited in the Commons debate on UK involvement in the Iran conflict.Source: event
How does YouGov MRP polling work?
MRP (Multilevel Regression and Post-stratification) combines a large national survey with local demographic data to estimate vote shares in individual constituencies or councils. YouGov's MRP correctly forecast the 2017 UK election when conventional polls failed.Source: YouGov methodology
What did YouGov predict for the 2026 Welsh Senedd election?
YouGov's final Senedd MRP (fieldwork 25 April–4 May 2026) projected Plaid Cymru 43 seats, Reform UK 34, Welsh Labour 12, Welsh Conservatives 4, Wales Greens 2. The result closely matched the projection, with Welsh Labour falling to 9 seats.Source: Lowdown uk-elections-2026
Did public opposition stop Starmer backing US bases for Iran?
No. Despite 58% of Britons opposing US use of UK bases in YouGov polling, Keir Starmer rejected calls for a parliamentary vote and maintained base access was for specific and limited defensive purposes.Source: Parliament
Who founded YouGov and when was it set up?
YouGov was founded in 2000 by Nadhim Zahawi (later a UK Government minister) and Stephan Shakespeare. It pioneered internet-based panel polling and is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Is YouGov a UK or American company?
YouGov is a British company, founded in 2000 and listed on the London Stock Exchange. Its headquarters are in London. It operates across more than 55 countries, including the US, where it runs the YouGov/Economist polling tracker, but it is British-owned.
What is YouGov's Westminster voting intention poll for May 2026?
YouGov's 4-5 May tracker placed Reform UK at 25%, Labour 18%, Conservatives 17%, Greens 15%, Lib Dems 14%, Restore Britain 4% — the first national poll of the cycle to place Reform clearly ahead of all parties.Source: YouGov
What is the difference between YouGov and traditional pollsters?
YouGov uses online panel polling rather than telephone or face-to-face methods, recruiting large stratified samples of internet users. Its MRP model aggregates constituency-level data, giving it greater granularity than standard national polls.
How accurate is YouGov polling?
YouGov gained significant credibility after its MRP model correctly forecast the 2017 UK general election when most rival polling firms did not. Its large online panels and quota sampling are widely used by UK media and political parties.
What is YouGov?
YouGov is a British internet-based market research and data analytics company founded in 2000, listed on the London Stock Exchange. It conducts online panel polling across 55+ countries and is best known for its political polling and MRP election forecasting model.
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