For this print edition, Roar launched its new annual political survey in collaboration with KCL Politics Society. This is something Roar will look to repeat in future years to track trends in the political perspective on campus.
This survey is conducted during an interesting, yet tumultuous, time in geopolitics. Globally, we have seen the rise and fall of significant political figures, increased border controls, the politicisation of artificial intelligence, and the conspiracy theories over the relationships between Jeffrey Epstein and global elites.
In a local lens, King’s has seen an increase in student protests, strikingly between pro-Palesine protestors and Zionist counter-protestors. The university has also welcomed speakers from across the political spectrum, organised by the Politics Society, such as Richard Tice MP (Deputy Leader of Reform UK), Zack Polanski (Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales), Stephen Flynn MP (Leader of the SNP in the Commons) and Bernd Lucke (Co-Founder of the AfD).
For this year’s poll, Roar has decided to explore voter intentions, belief in democracy, US foreign affairs, UK-EU relations and the right to protest.
Of 229 students who participated, 47.8% said they were students in the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy. Correspondingly, Roar acknowledges that the results from these polls are not directly proportionate to the entire student body at King’s.
However, these data are useful to understand the diverse politics of KCL’s student base. By analysing these responses, Roar aims to uncover the underlying philosophies that drive student engagement in an increasingly polarised political era.
Greens Top The General Election Poll
The Green Party swept the general election poll, taking 34.1% of the vote share, with a lead of 20 points. This is in line with a broad range of youth voting intentions polls, with one YouGov survey in January 2026 pointing to a 37% lead for the Greens among 18-24 year olds.
This result may have also been influenced by the highly-popular KCL Politics Society event with the party’s leader, Zack Polanski, in December, and the performance of KCL Green Party speakers at the Politics Debate in November, in which they placed second.
The Labour Party placed second with 15% of the vote share – lower than national polls for 18-24-year-olds, which place Labour at a 21% vote share.
Labour is closely followed by the Liberal Democrats, which garnered 13.6% of the vote despite a clear victory at the KCL Politics debate in November.
On the right, Reform UK, which at the time of writing led polls among the general public, took 11.7% of the vote share despite not having party representation on campus. In early October, Reform’s Deputy Leader Richard Tice was hosted at KCL by the Politics Society – a choice which brought both support and disdain from attendees.
Behind Reform with a close 10.3% was the Conservative Party, which is broadly experiencing a decline in support after its catastrophic defeat in the 2024 general election.
Beyond the five major UK parties, regional nationalist groups and Your Party each secured 1.9% of the vote, with ‘Other’ candidates accounting for 2.8%. This minor-party share included write-ins for the Workers Party of Britain, the Animal Welfare Party, and “a communist party”, alongside a single vote for former-Reform MP Rupert Lowe.
King’s Students Rally Behind Democracy
Based on responses from 229 King’s students, nearly 94% endorsed democracy as the best model for government, compared with just over 6% who did not.
This finding contrasts with several high-profile studies in the UK and across Europe, published last year, which suggested a different picture: that a slim majority of young people viewed authoritarian rule as preferable over democracy.
A study commissioned by Channel 4, published in January 2025, asserted that more than half – 52% – of the Gen Z young people surveyed thought that “the UK would be a better place if
a strong leader was in charge who does not have to bother with parliament and elections.”
Alarmingly, the study also found that around a third of Gen Z respondents believed “the UK would be a better place if the army was in charge.”
While King’s students overwhelmingly agreed that democracy is the best model for government, 72.5% of respondents said it requires reform to function properly, with only 21.4% believing it works well in its current form.
Taken together, these findings suggest that while faith in democracy remains strong among King’s students, it is increasingly conditional on meaningful reform. Addressing concerns over political accountability, representation and responsiveness to public opinion may therefore be crucial in restoring young people’s confidence in democratic institutions.
King’s Students Condemn Trump’s Foreign Policy
Roar found that 80.7% of respondents believe US President Donald Trump has taken unjustified actions and overstepped in international affairs.
Much of this student criticism centres on President Trump’s renewed intervention in Venezuela and his administration’s aggressive pursuit of control over Greenland. These actions have sparked a global firestorm over whether the U.S. is violating sovereign boundaries.
Despite this overwhelming consensus, a notable 11% of King’s students defend the President’s actions as justified. Notably, this support is not strictly partisan; while 66% of those who defend Trump’s foreign policy identify as Conservative or Reform voters, a significant 64% of right-leaning students actually joined the majority in labeling his actions unjustifiable.
This internal split mirrors the delicate balancing act of Opposition Leader Kemi Badenoch. While Badenoch supported prime minister Keir Starmer’s warnings to Trump regarding Greenland, she simultaneously backed the US-led removal of Maduro in Venezuela as the “right thing to do.”
0% of the students who backed Labour and only 2.7% of Green Party supporters viewed Trump’s interventions as justifiable. The Green Party has been particularly vocal, denouncing the pursuit of Greenland as a “brutish manipulation tactic.”
In contrast, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage remains an outlier, asserting that the world would be a “better place” if the US gained control of the territory.
Therefore, these results, perhaps unsurprisingly, suggest that students’ position on Trump’s foreign policy often reflect their partisanship.
King’s Students Back Closer UK-EU Ties Amid Global Turmoil
Roar found that a large majority of students surveyed supported rejoining the EU. This comes amid prime minister Keir Starmer’s ‘reset’ in relations with Brussels, following years of uneasy cooperation under the previous Conservative government.
Of those surveyed, 58% supported the UK rejoining the EU, while 12% supported rejoining the Customs Union. A further 16% favoured closer relations outside of EU institutions. Conversely, 5% said that the UK is already close enough to the EU, while 8% supported the UK pivoting further away.
Given the international makeup of King’s – which reached 54% in February 2025 – the scale of support for multilateralism is unsurprising. Intersecting positions on the EU with nationality and voting intentions reveals that while a majority of British respondents supported rejoining, that figure rises to over 65% for non-British citizens. Dual UK/EU citizens reported the highest propensity for rejoining at approximately 80%.
Regarding party support, over 75% of Liberal Democrat and Green supporters favour rejoining the EU, compared to around 65% of Labour supporters. Support among Conservative and Reform respondents sat under 40%.
However, even among Reform voters, 35% supported pivoting closer to the EU while remaining outside of formal institutions. Despite Reform’s origins as a hard Eurosceptic party, being formerly known as the Brexit Party, these results suggest that campus attitudes towards the EU are sometimes inconsistent with political allegiance.
Those unable to vote or currently undecided supported rejoining by approximately 60%, while those supporting regional nationalist parties also reported high support for pro-European positions. Ultimately, these results suggest that while student positions on Europe are largely reflected in party loyalties, the KCL community broadly aligns with pro-European policies – a sentiment sharpened by Trump’s tumultuous second presidency.
Absolute Rights or Legal Limits? The Growing Ideological Divide in King’s Protest Culture
Comparing responses on protests with support for different political parties, Roar found that 56.8% of students supporting left-leaning parties also said they supported the absolute right to protest, with 31.5% supporting protest conditionally within the law and 11.7% not supporting protest if it infringes on the rights of others.
In contrast, only 35.4% of respondents supporting right-leaning parties said they believed in the absolute right to protest, with the majority (50%) supporting protest conditionally within the law and 14.6% not supporting protest if it infringes on the rights of others.
Following years of friction at King’s – most notably between Zionist and pro-Palestine groups – Roar surveyed 229 students on whether they would defend the right to protest of those with opposing views. While a slim majority of the total sample (52.8%) backed an absolute right to protest regardless of legality, the consensus fractured along party lines.
The data show that 56.8% of left-leaning students support unconditional protest rights. In contrast, only 35.4% of right-leaning respondents shared this view, with a 50% majority of right-leaning respondents arguing that protest should remain strictly “within the limits of the law.”
This student-led demand for broad protections of protest rights comes as the UK government continues a historic crackdown on direct action. Since the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation last July, at least 2,700 people have been arrested for expressing support for the group – often for acts as simple as holding cardboard signs.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have condemned the arrests as a “violation of the UK’s international obligations,” particularly following the arrest of peaceful protesters as old as 83.
Only 10.5% of the total sample argued that opposing views should be silenced if they interfere with the rights of the public – a sentiment held more strongly by those students on the right (14.6%) than those students on the left (11.7%).
Grace Holloway is Roar's editor-in-chief managing the editorial side of our operation. She has gained valuable experience from Bloomberg as well as writing for Breaking Media, the Non-League Paper and Politics UK.
Matthew Pellow is the Head of News at Roar and previously served as a News Editor and Staff Writer. He studies History and French at King’s College London. During his time at Roar, Matthew has reported on major campus developments, from investigations into student homelessness and university administration to coverage of protests and political events at King’s. Alongside his reporting, he writes commentary on international politics and conflict. At Roar, Matthew has contributed to investigative reporting, breaking campus news, and shaping the paper’s editorial direction as part of its senior leadership team.
