Pollster Profile
More in Common: Britain’s Tribes & UK Public Opinion Research
More in Common is a non-partisan research organisation with offices in the United Kingdom, United States, France, Germany, and Poland. In the UK context, they are best known for producing the “Britain’s Tribes” segmentation of the British electorate — a framework that divides the public into seven distinct attitudinal groups rather than the traditional left/right political spectrum.
More in Common is not a traditional polling house in the mould of YouGov or Ipsos. They do not publish weekly voting intention trackers. Instead, their focus is on deep-dive research into values, identity, and political psychology — work that helps explain why people vote the way they do, not just how they intend to vote in the next election.
Origins and mission
More in Common was founded in 2017, partly as a response to the political polarisation visible in the Brexit referendum, the 2016 US presidential election, and other democratic flashpoints of that era. The organisation takes its name from a phrase used by the murdered MP Jo Cox in her maiden speech to the House of Commons in 2015: “we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.”
Their stated mission is to understand the forces driving political and social polarisation and to identify opportunities for rebuilding social cohesion. This mission shapes their research agenda: rather than providing weekly snapshots of voting intention, they conduct large-scale qualitative and quantitative research into values, identity, and the sources of political division.
The UK operation is closely connected to their international work. Research findings from Germany, France, and the US feed into their comparative analysis of democratic resilience and polarisation trends across Western democracies.
Britain’s Tribes: the seven segments
The most influential product of More in Common’s UK work is the “Britain’s Tribes” segmentation, first published in 2020 and updated since. Rather than dividing the British public by party, class, or region, Britain’s Tribes groups people by shared values, worldviews, and attitudes toward change. The seven tribes are:
These segments are not fixed to party affiliation. The Disengaged Battlers and Loyal Nationals, for example, have shifted dramatically in their voting behaviour between 2019 and 2026 — first to Conservative, then partly to Labour in 2024, and now showing significant movement toward Reform UK. Understanding these attitudinal groups is arguably more predictive of long-term voting shifts than any single VI poll.
Methodology
More in Common uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods:
- Large-scale quantitative surveys: Typically 10,000–30,000 respondents per segmentation study. These large samples enable reliable analysis of sub-groups and smaller parties.
- Attitudinal battery: Respondents answer a detailed battery of questions covering values, identity, and attitudes toward a wide range of policy and social issues. This battery is used to assign each respondent to one of the seven tribal segments.
- Qualitative research: Focus groups and in-depth interviews with members of each tribe, particularly around elections or major policy moments, provide texture and narrative context to the quantitative findings.
- Longitudinal tracking: More in Common periodically re-runs their segmentation survey to track shifts in the relative size and voting behaviour of each tribe over time.
- International comparison: The British segmentation is designed to be compared with equivalent work in Germany, France, the US, and Poland, enabling cross-national analysis of polarisation trends.
More in Common voting intention data
More in Common does occasionally publish voting intention figures, typically within larger reports on specific topics rather than as standalone weekly trackers. When they do publish VI data, it is often broken down by tribal segment — providing unusually detailed insight into which parties are winning and losing support among specific attitudinal groups.
Source: More in Common UK survey data, 2026. These figures are drawn from multi-topic reports rather than standalone VI trackers. GB adults.
Key research themes
Beyond voting intention, More in Common’s UK research has covered several recurring themes that are relevant to understanding British public opinion in 2026:
- Political disengagement: A significant portion of the British public — particularly among Disengaged Battlers — feel that mainstream politics does not represent them. This disengagement creates fertile ground for insurgent parties.
- Immigration and national identity: Attitudes toward immigration are not simply a function of party affiliation; they cut across class and education in ways that the tribal segmentation helps explain.
- Economic anxiety vs. cultural anxiety: More in Common research has consistently found that for many voters, concerns about economic security and cultural change are intertwined rather than separate. Policy responses that address only one dimension are likely to be less effective.
- Trust in institutions: Trust in parliament, media, and the legal system has declined significantly across most tribal segments since 2019. The Disengaged Battlers show the sharpest decline.
Britain’s Tribes and Reform UK
One of the most significant findings from More in Common’s 2025 and 2026 research is the degree to which Reform UK is drawing support from multiple tribal segments — not just the Loyal Nationals and Backbone Conservatives who might be considered natural targets, but also a meaningful share of Disengaged Battlers who did not vote in recent elections and a smaller but notable share of civic-minded voters frustrated with the pace of institutional change.
This cross-tribal appeal is what makes Reform UK difficult to poll accurately and difficult for other parties to strategically counter. A party that draws from a single tribal segment can be addressed with targeted policy; a party that is absorbing voters from three or four distinct value communities requires a more complex response.
More in Common international comparisons
More in Common’s international research enables direct comparisons between UK political polarisation and trends in France, Germany, the United States, and Poland. One consistent finding across all five countries is that the segment most analogous to the UK’s Disengaged Battlers — economically anxious, distrustful of institutions, less engaged with formal politics — has grown as a proportion of each electorate since 2017. In every country, this segment is showing increased receptivity to populist or nationalist movements.
For UK context, this international data is important because it suggests the current political moment is not simply a function of domestic policy failures under recent governments, but reflects deeper structural changes in how Western democracies are functioning. Understanding that context is essential to interpreting UK polling correctly.
How UKPollingData uses More in Common data
We do not include More in Common figures in the standard weekly polling average, as their research model does not produce the regular comparable VI data needed for a rolling average. However, we reference their tribal segmentation data extensively in our analysis articles as context for interpreting VI movements.
When a party gains or loses significant support in the cross-firm average, the Britain’s Tribes framework often provides the most insightful lens for understanding which voter groups are moving and why. See our full voting intention tracker and methodology page for more. For the standard weekly polling tracker, see YouGov, Techne, and Redfield & Wilton.