Reform is gaining ground with Brits who feel ‘powerless’
The share of Britons who believe most public services are ready to listen to complaints has halved over the past 23 years, falling from 49% in 2002 to just 26% today, according to new research that reveals widespread feelings of powerlessness across the country – and among Reform UK supporters in particular.
The study, by the Policy Institute at King’s College London, Ipsos UK and the LSE, finds that while large majorities of people in Britain have long felt powerless to influence decisions both nationally and locally, Reform UK has become a magnet for the disaffected – its supporters are consistently most likely to see themselves as powerless, alongside those who say they would not vote for any party and, to a lesser extent, Conservative supporters.
Two-thirds (65%) of Reform UK supporters disagree that their complaints will be listened to by most public services – the only party where a large majority feel this way.
This pattern extends to broader political influence: 72% of Reform UK supporters say people like them are powerless to change things in the country – a higher proportion than even non-voters (66%) and well above Conservative (59%) and Labour (42%) supporters.
More generally, among the population overall, one in four (25%) people now agree that when they get involved in politics, they really can change how the UK is run, down from one in three (32%) back in 2018.
Based on a nationally representative survey of 2,185 people aged 16+, the study explores feelings of powerlessness among the public as a whole and key groups in Britain.
It updates long-term trends, some going back to the 1980s, as well as adding new questions on the perceived responsiveness of public and private services.
Powerless to change things
A majority of the public (54%) say people like them are powerless to change things in Britain.
This is slightly lower than in 1989 (61%) – the last time this question was asked – though fewer people today now disagree with this view (23% in 2025 vs 32% in 1989).
A clear majority, 72% of Reform UK supporters, say people like them are powerless to change things in the country – the highest figure among both political supporters and non-voters.
Nearly half (45%)of the public today feel they have little influence over the things that happen to them.
This is higher than in 1989 (36%) but similar to the opinion in 1983 (44%), when this question was previously asked.
Unlike back then, however, there are now far fewer who actively disagree that they have little influence over what happens to them (29% in 2025 vs 44% in 1989 and 46% in 1983).
Again, Reform UK supporters (57%) are most likely to feel they have little influence over the things that happen to them, followed by Conservative supporters (47%) and those who say they would not vote (47%). Labour (42%) and Lib Dem (40%) supporters are least likely to feel this way.
Reform UK supporters and non-voters feel most powerless
To measure overall feelings of powerlessness, the researchers created an index based on three key indicators.
When looking at the proportion of people who fall into the two least powerful categories on the index, Reform UK supporters stand out: nearly three-quarters (73%) are in this highly powerless group.
This compares to just over half (56%) of the public as a whole and less than half (46%) of Labour supporters, who therefore feel comparatively more powerful.
But a sense of powerlessness is most acute among those who say they wouldn’t vote for any party. When isolating the single least powerful category on the index, this group is the most prominent: over a quarter (28%) of non-voters fall into this category of extreme powerlessness – slightly higher than the 23% of Reform UK supporters in this group.
By contrast, only 13% of the public as a whole are in this category, and just 6% of Labour supporters feel intensely powerless.
When asked to look back over the past 20 years, the public is far more likely to say the power of people like them to change things in Britain has stayed the same (37%) or declined (43%) than to say it has improved (14%).
Around one in five (19%) feel people like them have more influence over the things that happen to them than they did ten years ago.
Reform UK supporters are the only political group with a majority who feel the power of people like them to change things in the country (65%), and influence over the things that happen to them (59%) is worse than it was 20 years ago.
By contrast, young women stand out as most likely to feel people like them have greater influence than 20 years ago: 28% of women aged 16 to 34 say they have more power to change things in the country, more than double the proportion of their male counterparts (13%).
Not much control to begin with
Commenting on the data, Professor Bobby Duffy, Director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, noted that there was never a ‘golden age’ of the public feeling particularly powerful in their influence over national and local decisions.
“But we are seeing declines even from that low base,” he said. “Now ,only a quarter believe that getting involved in politics can change things, down from a third in 2018. And some groups have incredibly high feelings of powerlessness, particularly those who support Reform UK, with seven in ten saying they feel they have no power to change things in the country.
” It’s little surprise then that they are willing to take a chance on a relatively new party with a more radical approach, because they already feel they have so little to lose.
“We’ve also seen a collapse in belief that public services are ready to listen to complaints, halving since 2002. We know that how services respond when things go wrong is a key element of ‘delivery’, which is a major focus for the current government – but these results show how difficult a task they face in convincing the public that services can actually deliver for them.”
