Nearly half of people in Britain think Prince Charles should step aside and allow his son William to become king instead, a survey has indicated. According to the Ipsos poll, 42% believe Charles should give up his chance to take the throne and allow the line of succession to skip a generation.
However, the survey suggested that 48% of people in the UK still believe Charles will do a good job as king, compared with 19% who think he will do a bad job and 27% who think he will do neither a good nor bad job. And more than four in 10 people (44%) think abolishing the monarchy would be worse for Britain – twice as many as the 22% who think it would be better.
Meanwhile 24% think Charles, the Prince of Wales, should not stand aside for William, the Duke of Cambridge. Another 29% do not have strong feelings on the issue.
The research consisted of interviewing a representative sample of 2,055 British adults on March 24 and 25. It found that the proportion of people who view Charles favourably has increased since 2018 to 43% – up 11 percentage points.
More than a third (36%) feel the same for Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall. But Britons are much more likely to have a good opinion of the Queen, seen favourably by 69%, William, seen favourably by 64%, and Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, seen favourably by 60%.
Yet opinion of Charles is higher than the Duke and Duchess of Sussex - Ipsos found that 30% see Harry in a favourable light, down 35 percentage points from 2018, while 24% have a good opinion of Meghan, down 16 points. Seven in 10 (69%) now have an unfavourable opinion of Prince Andrew, the Duke of York.
Gideon Skinner, head of political research at Ipsos, said: "At the moment only a minority of people believe Britain would be better off without the monarchy, and the popularity of the Queen and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge remains strong. Looking to the future, half of Britons have faith in Prince Charles as a future king and more people view him in a positive light than four years ago.
"However, with the popularity of Prince William not far behind that of the Queen, Britons also wonder whether Prince Charles should step aside in favour of his eldest son. But their actions now are still important for the longer-term future of the royal family."
