LONDON — Andy Burnham will arrive in Downing Street next week in the middle of a scorching summer. Grumpy voters are demanding he do something to help them cope with the heat.
Recent record-breaking hot weather in the U.K. has made a chunk of voters more worried about climate change and impatient for help from the government, according to polling conducted for POLITICO by London-based public opinion polling company Public First.
After temperatures topped 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in some parts of the country last month, more than 40 percent of Brits said the recent conditions have raised their worries about climate change, while just under half said the hot weather hadn’t changed their views on climate.
Thirty-six percent said the heat had made them more supportive of government efforts to build more clean energy projects like wind and solar, while a significant majority — 66 percent — were resigned to the fact that hotter conditions during the summer months will become the new norm.
