The issues that pet owners want the new Labour government tackle

With the UK election now over, a new poll from leading pet insurance provider ManyPets, has revealed the issues that pet owners are most keen to see the new Labour government tackle, with a quarter of those polled focussed on a higher standard of animal welfare being introduced and a further 17% keen to ensure harsher penalties for dog owners who don't clean up after their dog in public spaces.  

Other policies pet owners are keen to see become more commonplace in the UK include higher standard of animal welfare (27%), harsher penalties for those whose dog attacks another dog (16%), better rights for renters who own pets (11%), more dog-friendly venues (8%) and tax breaks for households with pets (7%).

Of those pet owners polled in the new survey, over half of British pet owners (53%) believe dogs would make the better leaders. Only 27% feel that cats would make a good leader. Our canine companions win in terms of their loyalty, integrity and honesty, all key factors that Brits look for when voting for a candidate.

70% of those polled wouldn't be swayed to vote for a candidate if they were a dog owner. 12%, however, would be swayed. 

The new poll also revealed that the majority of pet parents (41.5%) voted for Labour. Echoing the election results, these new and exclusive stats are taken from a June survey of over 3,000 UK pet owners. 

The Conservative Party took second place in the vote with a lacklustre 16.8%, followed by Reform UK (11.7%), Liberal Democrats (6.2%) and Green Party (5.2%). 7.2% of those polled don't plan on voting. 

Alongside the poll, the team at ManyPets also took to the streets of London to speak to the public and see whether they were Team Cats or Team Dogs. A video of the amusing results can be found here.

Lewis Martins, Content Strategy Lead at ManyPets commented: "Interestingly, British pet parents make up a major force at the ballot box, so we wanted to see what matters most to them as pet owners heading into the upcoming election. Hitting the streets of Westminster and conducting our survey, it was fantastic to hear directly from cat and dog lovers across the UK. Their top priority? Stronger animal welfare laws, especially cracking down on illegal puppy and kitten smuggling. 

At ManyPets, our mission is all about making life better for pets and their humans, so this really resonated with us!

We did also ask pet parents whether our nation's political leaders were more of a cat or a dog - with Rishi apparently giving off more of a cat energy, and Keir giving off more of a dog energy."