Should there be a bank holiday if England or Scotland win the Euros? What Yahoo readers think

Yahoo UK’s poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week’s hot topics. After 72 hours the poll closes and, each Friday, we’ll publish and analyse the results, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers.

Football fans across England and Scotland will all have eyes on Germany for the next four weeks as they cheer their nations on at Euro 2024.

Thousands of Scots have descended on Munich as they prepare to take on the tournament hosts in the opening game today.

The first fixture is one of 51 to be played over the next month to decide the next European champions, with the final taking place at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin on 14 July.

The start of the tournament inevitably comes with hopes that one of the home nations will see success – and the perennial question of whether we’ll all get a bank holiday if England – many bookies’ favourites – bring home the trophy.

When the England men’s team reached the Euro 2020 final, then-prime minister Boris Johnson was reportedly poised to declare a bank holiday if they won, while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was among those calling for a national day off if England’s women’s team won the World Cup Final last summer.

Neither actually happened, saving the decision from being made, but it will no doubt resurface again for the Euro 2024 tournament. Bank holidays come at a cost – a 2010 House of Commons library report estimated an additional day off would cost the economy £2.9bn.

Yahoo News UK asked our readers for their thoughts on the Euros – from whether we should get an extra bank holiday to how excited they are for the tournament. Here are the results:

Our poll from Monday at midday until midday Thursday asked: ‘Should the country get a bank holiday if England or Scotland win the Euros?’

It received 2,913 votes and showed the majority of of Yahoo readers (74%) think there should definitely not be a bank holiday, compared to 22% of those who said there definitely should be. Some 4% of voters said they were not sure.

Yahoo News UK readers were also asked: ‘How far will England progress at Euro 24?’, with fewer than one in 10 (8%) saying they think the England national team will win the tournament.

The poll received 1,365 votes, with 22% of people predicting that England will get knocked out in the group stage, while 16% said the team would get to the round of 16.

Just over a quarter (27%) think England will get to the quarter-finals, while 19% predicted a semi-final appearance, and 8% think England will reach the finals.

Yahoo readers were also asked to predict Scotland’s performance in the tournament, with just 4% saying they think the team will win the tournament.

Of the 1,444 votes cast, some 62% said Scotland will be knocked out in the group stages, with 18% saying it will get to the round of 16, and one in 10 (10%) predicted the team’s journey will end at the quarter-finals.

Some 4% said they think Scotland can make it to the semi finals, with just 2% predicting an appearance in the final.

A final question in the poll asked readers: ‘How excited are you about watching the Euros?’

This poll received 1,429 votes with the most common vote being 0, indicating many readers are apathetic about the tournament.

The average strength-of-feeling score on all the votes was 3.22.

Our original poll article can be found here.

Read more of Yahoo UK’s Poll of the Week articles