Ben Shimshon, chief executive and founding partner, Thinks Insight & Strategy

The new government will be great for research. Not because it’s Labour, but because it’s new, and new governments want to do things and make change. That requires quality data and brilliant insight.

Crawford Hollingworth, global founder, The Behavioural Architects

While welcoming the political change, one has to be conscious that several nuanced policy implementations under Labour, such as overly stringent data privacy laws and more complex regulatory frameworks, could adversely impact the market research sector.

Stricter immigration policies could result in a skills shortage, and reduced private sector confidence could impact budgets resulting in a backlash against outside consultancies.

Neil Bellamy, consumer insights director, GfK

The most evident impact so far is financially, as the October Budget will directly affect businesses such as with National Insurance contributions rise, and this will inevitably then filter down to the employee level and thus to consumers.

Ray Poynter, chief research officer, Potentiate

Almost no visible impact; instead of the decline we were facing, we will probably see a neutral effect. This is better than it would otherwise have been, but not very visible.

I am worried that the UK will become a bit of an outlier in terms of AI and privacy, which could make international work from the UK a bit trickier.

Babita Earle, international managing director, Zappi

I think there should be an impact. Labour’s number one aim is growth, and that means we will need to find ways to support and identify that growth, which requires greater market and consumer understanding. 

William Ullstein, UK chief executive, YouGov

I’m confident the research industry has a bright future ahead of it, regardless of which party is in government. Fundamentally, we are offering a vital service to our clients and that is what matters.

Fiona Blades, chief experience officer, MESH Experience

I think it is a tough economic environment for the UK (whichever party had got into power).

Paul Hudson, founder and chief executive, FlexMR

The challenge will be on how much impact their policies have on small businesses and economic growth; the recent tax and salary changes give a big hit to agencies in the industry and could also sap demand from brand clients if they seek to reduce marketing budgets to compensate.

On the positive side, they may take a stronger and more proactive regulatory stance on artificial intelligence and regulating social media companies, both of which should be good in safeguarding our industry.

Emma Cooper, chief people officer, System1 Group

I think they’re having a huge impact on the business landscape already, in varying ways from policy to economy, which will affect the industry in both itself and the clients we serve.

Danielle Todd, director, The Forge

I think the Labour government has a real opportunity to provide direction and optimism. Growth needs optimism. And particularly in an industry with majority of small and medium-sized enterprises, they have the ability to help us believe in ourselves and gather momentum again. As we learnt at the MRS Awards recently, we are a £9bn industry; let’s celebrate and keep growing.

Tatenda Musesengwa, vice-president of audiences, Savanta, and co-founder, Colour of Research (CORe)

Quite a significant one. We’re not all waiting around for an election to take place for one, which was impacting client and researcher behaviour.

There is a hope that there will finally be some business stability in terms of environment and policy agenda, which can only be a good thing for growth. And Labour in government has naturally changed priorities in terms of who wants research and for what.