Ministry of Defence - 1998 Opinion Poll

The MoD survey was carried out as part of the 1998 Strategic Defence Review and its key object was 'to explore the public's knowledge, opinions and attitudes... relating to the role of Britain's armed forces.' The results that relate to arms exports are given below, reproduced directly from the Report.

All respondents were asked if they agreed with a number of statements concerning the sale of British defence equipment overseas, NOT including nuclear weapons:

Agreement with statements about sale of BRITISH Defence equipment OVERSEAS:

We should sell defence equipment to any country that wishes to buy it

Agree Strongly: 4%
Agree slightly: 6%
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 6%
Disagree slightly: 17%
Disagree strongly: 66%
Don't know: 2%

We should sell defence equipment to any country not under UN embargo

Agree Strongly: 6%
Agree slightly: 14%
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 12%
Disagree slightly: 24%
Disagree strongly: 41%
Don't know: 4%

We should sell defence equipment ONLY to countries that are our close allies

Agree Strongly: 31%
Agree slightly: 31%
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 12%
Disagree slightly: 12%
Disagree strongly: 12%
Don't know: 2%

We should not sell defence equipment to other countries

Agree Strongly: 25%
Agree slightly: 16%
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 15%
Disagree slightly: 21%
Disagree strongly: 20%
Don't know: 2%

The survey was prepared by BMRB International Ltd (Survey Research Unit) for the Central Office of Information on behalf of the MoD.
A representative sample of over 1700 adults aged 15+ were interviewed across the UK.

CAAT survey, 2003
UK Working Group on Arms survey, 2002