HALF of Britons do not feel sympathetic to the plight of refugees trying to cross the Channel, according to new polling from YouGov.

The poll of 3163 British adults, conducted and released today, reveals that 49% of respondents either feel "not much sympathy" (22%) or "no sympathy at all" (27%) for those migrants. 

Asked: "How much sympathy do you have, if any at all, for the migrants who have been crossing the Channel from France to England?" just 19% of respondents said they felt "a great deal of sympathy". 25% said they felt "a fair amount".

The most sympathetic "region" of the UK was shown to be London, where 30% of respondents said they felt a great of sympathy. Scotland came second, with 24% of people saying they felt that way.

READ MORE: 'This truly is vile': Sky follows BBC's lead with live report on Channel crossing

Just 3% of Conservative voters and 6% of people who voted to leave the EU expressed a great deal of sympathy. This compares to 41% of Labour voters and 38% of Remain voters.

42% of Conservative voters said they felt "no sympathy at all", along with 46% of Leave voters.

SNP voters were not included in the poll's results.

Interestingly age also played a large role in how sympathetic people felt, with the younger people polled being much more likely to feel a "great deal" of sympathy. Just 9% of those over 65 fell into that category, compared to 34% of 18-24 year olds. 

The reverse was also true, with 35% of those over 65 saying they felt no sympathy at all, compared to just 10% of people aged 18-24.

The full results of the poll can be found here.