The British polling company Populus has amalgamated recent polls to present an arresting picture of the collapse in support for the major British parties in the wake of the Parliamentary expenses scandal. The major beneficiaries? The Euroskeptic UK Independence Party, the white supremacist British National Party, and the Greens.
Populus comments:
Regardless of which party’s MPs have been more in the spotlight on particular days, or which party those accused of the most serious abuses represent, the great majority of voters think that the parties are “as bad as each other”: 86% agreed with this statement in the most recent Populus poll.
Because Labour and the Conservatives have seen their support fall by similar amounts over the last couple of weeks, the Conservative lead has remained about the same – but David Cameron’s party has slipped below 40% for the first time this year and the Conservative average in published polls for this month matches its lowest level since the non-election of October 2007.
Labour meanwhile is averaging less than 24% in published polls since the Daily Telegraph started to publish details of MPs’ allowances – their lowest level of support since the Michael Foot era over 25 years ago.
3 responses so far
1 krove // May 25, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Labour are still polling better than the GOP!!!!
That should tell you something. Labour is pretty much hated in the UK apart from the lunatic fringe.
2 Nick // May 26, 2009 at 12:18 am
This really is protest voting for the European Elections in June that are elected via PR. Everyone knows they will not vote for one of the parties in the general election because the vote won’t count with FPTP. The Greens and UKIP did well in 2004 European elections but had a very much reduced voting share in the 2005 general election.
3 HHomer // May 26, 2009 at 8:39 am
A big disadvantage of the UK system for selecting candidates is that there are no public primaries. This makes it impossible for ordinary voters to choose the candidate for the party they support. In the US a rotten candidate can be challenged by someone from within their party.
To get rid of an MP who has been gouging the taxpayer British voters will have to support another party at the General Election.
The European Elections will see a big protest vote by a furious electorate. Perhaps this will give the main party hierarchies the backbone to get rid of those MPs who’ve had their snouts most firmly in the trough.
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