The country is yet to be convinced of the benefits of coalition government.
The country is yet to be convinced of the benefits of coalition government
As the year draws to a close, eyes in Westminster and beyond will be fixed firmly on May’s General Election.
The polls are clear – barring some miraculous turnaround in the fortunes of either Labour or the Conservatives, the country is heading for another hung Parliament.
Against this backdrop, Ipsos Mori has released data as part of its final political monitor for the year showing that the country is yet to be convinced as to the benefits of coalition government.
Firstly, the polling shows that 63 per cent of voters now believe a coalition government is the likely result in May (25 per cent very likely, 38 per cent fairly likely). This is up from the 51 per cent who thought it was likely in January (14 per cent very likely compared to 37 per cent fairly likely).
However such a prediction should not be viewed as an endorsement for this form of government. Almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of respondent said that a coalition government would be a bad thing for the country, the same proportion as recorded in January.
Interestingly, however, the proportion of those believing the current coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats has been bad for the country has fallen slightly to 56 per cent, down from the 60 per cent recorded in January.
Commenting on the findings, Gideon Skinner, head of political research at Ipsos MORI, said:
“As the year ends, the prospect of another coalition is growing more likely in voters’ minds – a reflection of the historically low levels of support they are giving the main parties, even while the same voters maintain they don’t like the idea of coalitions. There are differences even within the current coalition too – Liberal Democrats are over twice as likely as Conservative voters to think another Coalition is what Britain needs.”
Ed Jacobs is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward
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31 Responses to “Voters not keen on coalition 2.0”
RightFootForward
Anything to stop Labour getting back in, after the mess they caused before 2010.
swat
And yet they the electorate voted in a coalition Govt, denying no Party a majority!
Which just goes to show that the electorate never really know what they want, until it actually happens.Most will be relieved that neither the Tories nor Labour won an outright majority to give them the license to do whatever they liked. The same will happen in 2015.
Guest
Yea, how dare wages not keep falling forever!
Leon Wolfeson
The Tories got 99.9% of what they wanted, and the LibDems committed electoral suicide. Not quite your narrative.
The reality is that “coalitions” under FPTP suck because the “Parties” are already large coalitions. It’s FPTP which is and remains the problem.
Gary Scott
Both parties will do ANYTHING to avoid coalition. LibDems will likely be annihilated so the only deal on the table would be with the combined Green/Plaid/SNP. They would only consent to deal with Labour of course but ONLY on condition of non-renewal of Trident which they’ve already stated. This would be contrary to Labour policy in favour of having and renewing nuclear weapons. The Tories would only be able to form a coalition with UKIP in that case. It seems unlikely that UKIP would have enough seats to make this feasible. Both major parties would be keen to polarise the vote, although it looks like this would be at the second time of asking. Another GE will be forced upon us by those whose hunger for power is greater than their desire to serve (all of them!)