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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent

Quarter in UK believe Covid was a hoax, poll on conspiracy theories finds

An anti-lockdown rally in Trafalgar Square, London, in September 2020
An anti-lockdown rally in Trafalgar Square, London, in September 2020. Photograph: Guy Corbishley/Alamy

The UK is home to millions more conspiracy theorists than most people realise, with almost a quarter of the population believing Covid-19 was probably or definitely a hoax, polling has revealed.

About a third of the population are convinced that the cost of living crisis is a government plot to control the public, and similar numbers think “15-minute cities” – an attempt to increase walking in neighbourhoods – are a government surveillance ruse, and that the “great replacement theory” – the idea that white people are being replaced by non-white immigrants – is happening.

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