Cameron pays the price of expenses scandal
Independent poll finds huge surge in support for fringe parties
Digg
del.icio.us
Facebook
Reddit
Google
Stumble Upon
Fark
Newsvine
YahooBuzz
Bebo
Twitter
Independent Minds
The scandal over MPs' expenses has led to a dramatic drop in support for the Conservatives as voters have turned their backs on all three main parties, the latest ComRes survey for The Independent has found.
Remarkably, the poll puts the "other parties" on 30 per cent – neck and neck with the Tories. The Tories' rating is 15 points down on the last ComRes survey for this newspaper a month ago, before the controversy erupted. It is at its lowest level in any poll since April 2006, poll since April 2006 when David Cameron was engulfed in a row over his party's policy on grammar schools.
If a general election were held now, Labour would win 22 per cent of the votes and the Liberal Democrats 18 per cent, the poll found. That would leave Mr Cameron 46 seats short of an overall majority. The poll suggests that, while Labour has hit rock bottom, the expenses controversy is now dragging down the Tories too. Although Mr Cameron won praise for his response when the scandal broke, there has since been a stream of revelations about how Tory MPs have milked the system.
Labour has dropped four points in the past month, while the Liberal Democrats are up one point and the other parties are up by 18 points.
The findings will worry the Tories ahead of Thursday's local and European elections. There are signs that the controversy on expenses has alienated older people, those normally most likely to vote. Tory support among those aged 65 and over has dropped from 49 to 28 per cent in the past month and, unusually, the party's highest level of support is now among 18 to 24-year-olds. The new poll puts the Greens on 8 per cent, Ukip on 7 per cent, the BNP 3 per cent, the Scottish National Party 2 per cent, Plaid Cymru 1 per cent and other smaller parties or independents 9 per cent.
It suggests the voters' message in Thursday's local and European elections will be to say "a plague on all your houses" to the three main parties. According to ComRes, 80 per cent of people agree that "the Westminster parties" have let the country down, while only 18 per cent disagree.
The poll raises hopes for the Greens and Ukip of a strong showing in Thursday's elections to the European Parliament. It points to a Labour rout that could lead to demands from Labour MPs that Gordon Brown stand down before the general election.
Last night the Prime Minister faced a dilemma over whether to keep Alistair Darling as his Chancellor when he reshuffles his Cabinet – possibly this Friday, when the council results will emerge, and before the European results are announced on Sunday. Mr Darling paid back £668 after he was accused of using his second homes allowance to claim the service charges on his London flat while he was not living there. He apologised unreservedly.
The ComRes survey found strong public support for some of the ideas highlighted by The Independent's Campaign for Democracy. Some 69 per cent of people support the introduction of proportional representation (PR), with 22 per cent opposed to it. Although the Tories oppose electoral reform, 63 per cent of people who support the party back PR, as well as 67 per cent of Labour supporters and 78 per cent of Liberal Democrat supporters.
Some 79 per cent back fixed-term parliaments, with 18 per cent against. There is strong support for Mr Cameron's plan for a reduction in the number of MPs, with 73 per cent in favour and 22 per cent against. This proposal is endorsed by 77 per cent of Tory supporters, 62 per cent of those intending to vote Labour and 59 per cent of those who say they will vote Liberal Democrat.
The anger over the behaviour of MPs is spread across the political spectrum. Some 89 per cent of Tory supporters agree that the main parties have let the country down – a view shared by 67 per cent of Liberal Democrat supporters and 59 per cent of those intending to vote Labour.
Four out of five (79 per cent) people who voted Tory in 2005 would back the party in a general election now, compared with only 54 per cent of those who voted for Labour last time.
ComRes telephoned 1,005 GB adults between 29 and 31 May 2009. Data were weighted by past vote recall. ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules. Full tables at www.comres.co.uk
View all comments that have been posted about this article.
Offensive or abusive comments will be removed and your IP logged and may be used to prevent further submission. In submitting a comment to the site, you agree to be bound by the Independent Minds Terms of Service.
- Print Article
- Email Article
-
Click here for copyright permissions
Copyright 2009 Independent News and Media Limited
Comments
By allowing them to stand down at the next general election, Cameron has allowed them to receive massive pay offs and pension pay outs at our expense. He did NOT sack them immediately thus saving the tax payers millions of pounds. Instead he has effectively rewarded them.
Where, we as members of the pubic, would have been prosecuted, they are being rewarded. Playing the 'system' to the bitter end. Going by track record of hypocrisy, Brown will be even worse.
Not that that excuses the feeble tokenism of his response, or his own frivolous claims.
I think somebody should be asking for their money back.
As regards sacking MPs that have abused the allowance system, it is a shame they cannot be sacked immediately. The 'whip' can be withdrawn but nothing more. A rash of by-elections would not help. Perhaps Parliamentary rules can be modified to the extent that no severance package will be received by those proven fraudsters.
And, given that those results are real people voting in real elections, should they not be telling a greater truth than an apparently misleading result based on 1005 phone calls to somebody who may fibbing, or may change their minds, and etc?
People who lie look stupid when the truth comes out, as it will.
if a vote was taken that anyone who has claimed more than 10,000 quid "incorrectly" in the last 4 years needs to resign without a pension i wonder how many would be embroiled and how many would vote to bring in such legislation, the 2004 aca changes were brought in to allow additional troughing under labour.
who made the decision? can we be told? was it brown and martin? brown (of course) says not him, so who was it?
we understand that as all parties supported it they are ALL to blame. ALL of them in wastemonster.
Cameron had a good chance to present himself as an alternative leader. He has not done that and Labour will take great comfort from having such a lacklustre opponent.
Come get my vote, politicians. If you REALLY want it, that is.
While I've no doubt they have been hit, I suspect the figures represent a degree of "confusion" between the European and General Election intentions.
Other recent polls have shown very different intentions for the two (as you would expect). This one seems roughly to have "split the difference". I could be wrong, but I suspect methodological problems.
The real point though is that the polls do suddenly seem to have become a lot more volatile.
If the Tories reallly do end up with their lowest vote share ever come the next election - as this suggests - then I will be delighted, but will probably suspect that I have died and been resurrected in another dimension.
If you believe this, you'll believe anything.
The Liberals have a lower rating than I would suggest.
The polls always put the Liberals down.
Lies, lies, spin, spin and statistics. If you do a poll in a safe seat or say in a city centre business district you are going to get a bias result. You can poll for the result you want.
My suggestion is these opinion polls represent propaganda to influence public support for the establishment.
Polls are a political tool for influencing voting patterns.
They should not be conducted immediately before an election since they deface democracy.
www.millarcrime.com
The support for "others" is a clear indication that the electorate want change. Change that can not and will not come from Conservatives or Labour.
He should have sacked Cash immediately on learning the truth about his theft.
Dithering Dave is not the man to lead the U K out of this mess.
I will be voting Ukip in two days.
While Britain is cleaning its Parliament, just sacking those MPs who did wrong is not enough. A change of the electoral system is needed to have MPs realise they cannot take their constituency for granted.