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
31 Responses to “Voters not keen on coalition 2.0”
Guest
Keep making up nonsense about the government-toe-sucking BBC.
Mike B
No strong feelings on AV or PR but not convinced.
Leon Wolfeson
….AV and PR are very different to each other.
Selohesra
Maybe they will have a coalition of ”all the talents’ – there again they might struggle to get enough to fill the cabinet
Steve MC
Labour were fixing a mess caused by the City Financiers that donate millions to the Tory Party.