Pollster Profile

Techne UK: Weekly Polls, Methodology & Voting Intention

Techne UK is a British online research and polling firm that publishes weekly voting intention surveys. The firm is one of the UK’s most consistent producers of political polling data, releasing new figures every week without exception — a frequency matched only by YouGov and, at times, Redfield & Wilton.

Techne operates primarily in the online panel space and conducts research across a range of commercial and political topics in addition to their political polling. Their voting intention figures receive significant media attention, partly because they have consistently registered some of the highest numbers for Reform UK of any polling firm — recording Reform at 28% at their peak.

Background and ownership

Techne UK is a subsidiary of Techne, a London-based research company. Unlike some of the larger polling brands, Techne operates with a relatively lean profile in terms of public commentary — they do not have the media-facing persona associated with, say, Joe Twyman at Deltapoll or the YouGov brand. Their publishing model focuses primarily on the data itself, with weekly releases typically made available through media partners and on their own website.

The firm is a member of the British Polling Council, subjecting their political polls to the same disclosure requirements as larger firms. Data tables for all BPC-registered polls must be published within two working days.

Methodology

Techne UK voting intention polls use online panel methodology:

1. Online panel: All fieldwork is conducted online via a managed panel of GB adults. The panel is sourced from a third-party sample provider, which is common practice for mid-size polling firms.
2. Sample size: Standard weekly voting intention surveys use a sample of approximately 1,604 GB adults.
3. Fieldwork timing: Surveys are typically fielded during the working week, with results published weekly — usually mid-week or Thursday. This consistent cadence makes it easy to track week-on-week movements.
4. Weighting: Weighted by age, gender, and region. Techne uses 2024 General Election vote recall as the primary political weighting dimension.
5. Past vote recall adjustment: Like all UK pollsters, Techne faces the challenge that more people recall voting for the winning party in a past election than actually did (the so-called “spiral of silence” effect). How firms handle this recall bias significantly affects their final figures.
6. Undecideds: The published Techne figures typically exclude undecided voters from the final percentages, reallocating responses among those who expressed a preference.

Recent voting intention figures (May 2026)

Source: Techne UK weekly poll, May 2026. Figures rounded to nearest percent. GB adults.

Techne’s peak Reform UK figure: 28%

Techne UK recorded Reform UK at 28% in polling conducted in late 2024 and early 2025, making it one of the first firms to show Reform challenging or leading Labour in national voting intention. This figure attracted significant media coverage and became a reference point in discussions of how high Reform UK support could plausibly go.

At the time of the 28% reading, the cross-firm average had Reform at approximately 22–24%. Techne’s figure therefore represented a notable outlier — roughly 4–6 points above the central estimate. This kind of divergence is known as a “house effect” and is a recurring feature of Techne’s UK political polling.

House effects: why Techne shows higher Reform figures

Techne consistently records higher Reform UK figures than the industry average and correspondingly lower Labour figures. Several factors may contribute to this pattern:

• Panel composition: The composition of the online panel from which Techne draws its samples may skew toward demographic groups that are more sympathetic to Reform UK — for example, older men with lower formal educational qualifications.
• Weighting approach: Small differences in how weighting targets are set can compound across multiple demographic dimensions. A firm that slightly under-weights younger, more urban respondents will tend to over-weight older, more rural respondents who lean more heavily toward Reform.
• Past vote recall calibration: How firms calibrate their 2024 recall data matters significantly. If Techne’s recalled Labour vote in 2024 is slightly lower than it should be, the model will over-weight non-Labour voters in the final output.
• Question ordering: The sequence of questions before the voting intention question can “prime” respondents in different ways. Issues-first surveys sometimes produce different VI results than topline-first surveys.

None of these explanations is definitive — Techne does not publish a detailed methodology note that would allow external analysts to pinpoint the exact source of the divergence. What is clear is that their figures are consistently at the high end of the Reform range across the market, and this should be factored into how their data is interpreted.

Weekly cadence: value for tracking

Despite the house effect considerations, Techne’s weekly cadence provides genuine value for polling analysts. The consistency of their output means that directional movements in Techne’s figures over time are meaningful even if the absolute level diverges from other firms. A three-point drop in Techne’s Reform figure over a month is a genuine signal of movement, regardless of whether the starting point of 26% or 28% is the “true” level.

Best practice is to track Techne figures in the context of the full cross-firm average. When Techne and YouGov are moving in the same direction, that convergence is a strong signal of a real trend. When they diverge, caution is warranted.

Accuracy record

Techne’s accuracy record at UK general elections is harder to assess than for older firms, partly because they were less prominent before 2022 and partly because their house effects mean their absolute figures tend to be off-market. At the 2024 General Election, Techne’s final poll showed Reform UK higher than the actual result, consistent with their systematic high-Reform house effect.

Techne sub-group data

Techne publishes crosstab data with their weekly VI figures, including breakdowns by age band, gender, region, and 2024 vote recall. These sub-group figures are valuable even where the top-line national figure is subject to a house-effect correction: the direction and relative magnitude of sub-group differences in Techne polling tend to be broadly consistent with other firms, even when absolute levels diverge.

In May 2026, Techne sub-group data shows Reform UK running at approximately 38–40% among men aged 45–64 — the demographic cohort where the party is strongest across all firms. Among women under 35 and voters in London, Techne records Reform UK at 12–15%, consistent with the party’s national weakness among these groups. The gender gap for Reform in Techne data (approximately 14–16 points) is among the widest recorded by any firm, though whether this reflects genuine variation or a panel composition effect is uncertain.

Techne and the Reform UK surge narrative

In the media narrative of 2025–2026, Techne has often been the first firm to record a new high for Reform UK, and their figures have regularly been cited as evidence of the party’s continued rise. The caution here is important: Techne’s consistently high Reform readings mean that a new Techne record for Reform UK does not necessarily indicate that Reform has actually reached a new national high — it may simply reflect the firm’s persistent upward bias for that party.

When a Techne figure for Reform UK is notably higher than the cross-firm average, we recommend checking at least two other firms published within the same week before treating it as a new milestone. Our voting intention tracker makes this comparison straightforward by displaying all firm figures side by side in a consistent time window.

How UKPollingData uses Techne data

UKPollingData.com includes Techne’s weekly figures in our national polling average but applies a house-effect correction to account for their documented tendency to over-record Reform UK and under-record Labour. The correction is derived from comparing Techne’s rolling average against the cross-firm consensus over a trailing 90-day period. Details of the correction methodology are on our poll-of-polls methodology page.

Track all Techne figures alongside other firms in the full voting intention tracker. See also our profiles of YouGov, Deltapoll, and Redfield & Wilton for comparison of methodologies.