Britons Increasingly Think U.K. Is on Wrong Track, Survey Shows

(Bloomberg) -- Most Britons think the country is on the wrong track, with terrorism and health care cited as the biggest concerns, a poll showed.

More than seven in 10 respondents under 65 think the U.K. government is taking the wrong direction, up 16 percentage points since Prime Minister Theresa May unexpectedly called a general election in April and a 7-point increase since the vote in June, the survey by Ipsos MORI found.

“Leading up to and following the snap election, optimism about the direction the country is going in has been in steady decline,” Ipsos MORI Research Director Gideon Skinner said in a statement. “Concern about terrorism and the rise of extremism have both rapidly increased to become top worries for Britons.”

May's popularity has plunged since the election she hoped would increase her hold on power left her with no parliamentary majority, forcing her into a minority government. Recent terror attacks in Manchester and London have heightened concerns about security, making the U.K. the fourth most worried about those issues among 26 countries surveyed.

While respondents in the majority of countries surveyed also were concerned about being on the wrong track, Britain recorded its worst score since March 2013. Terrorism, health care and the rise of extremism were the top three issues cited, followed by poverty and immigration.

Unemployment, corruption and poverty were the top three issues cited globally. Ipsos MORI conducted 18,557 interviews between June 23 and July 7.

To contact the reporter on this story: Svenja O'Donnell in London at sodonnell@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Eddie Buckle, Emma Ross-Thomas