The public seems to support military action in Syria

In a ITV Poll Overwhelming 89% Opposed our involvement in bombing Syria

Ian Mearns MP, 28 November 2015

It's correct that 89% of people responding to the question "Do you support British involvement with airstrikes in Syria?" on ITV's website pressed the "No" button. That survey doesn't tell us anything about what the general public thinks, though.

Anthony Wells, a pollster, has explained why on his website:

"Opinion polls are meaningful for one reason and one reason alone, because the sample is representative. It has the right number of young people and old people as Britain as a whole, the same number of rich people and poor people as Britain as a whole, the same numbers of left-wing and right-wing people… and therefore, it should have the same proportion of people who are anti-bombing and pro-bombing as there are in Britain as a whole.

An open-access poll on a website has no such controls."

A number of polls that are representative rather than self-selecting have found a majority of people, or a majority of those with an opinion, in favour of the UK taking part in air strikes against ISIS in Syria. Another, for the Evening Standard, found people split 50-50 on the issue.

We aren't aware of any professional polls showing a majority against military action.

There's plenty of nuance in the ones showing support for it: those polled for the Daily Mirror, for example, thought that bombing would make the UK less safe.

Opinion polls don't decide the issue. The government has said that it wants MPs to vote for military intervention, although in principle it can act without the approval of Parliament.

Update 3 December 2015

We contacted ITV to ask if they'd be willing to add a note to the poll pointing out that it's not representative of public opinion.

ITV has now added a note saying "This poll is not scientific", and agreed to make that clear in future.