General Election 2015: The Defence Debate

There is much public support regarding the importance of the main political parties making a variety of defence-related manifesto commitments ahead of the General Election in May.

In Scotland, however, adults are more likely to say they that a commitment to renewing Trident in its current form is unimportant than to say that it is important (59% vs 35%). This is in sharp contrast with the English and Welsh public.

Only 30% of the British public say that they trust politicians to make the right decisions about the future of our Armed Forces.

The Conservatives are the most trusted party to keep the country safe (31%), followed by Labour (21%) and UKIP (12%).

Almost as many British voters say they either don’t know (15%) or don’t trust any party (13%) to keep the country safe.

Defence and combatting terrorism ranks alongside unemployment and care for the elderly as a priority for British voters ahead of the general election, with 13% selecting this as one of the top three issues affecting their decision about who to vote for in May.

However, only 2% say that the Armed Forces welfare is one of the three most important issues to them.