The state is too big, voters say
Majority support Tory plans to scale back 'big government', poll shows
Tuesday 27 October 2009
Latest in UK Politics
Related articles
On Facebook
From the blogs
Disclosure: We’d never even been to a club when we made our first single
For most of us, reaching eighteen years of age opens up a new world for exploration, spontaneity and...
Top of the posts: Drunken rants, the Western Fail and misogyny pushers
The most read blogs this week, as determined by stats.
Sepp Blatter: Penalty shoot-outs must remain, they’re football’s great leveller
As England supporters, we should scorn at any such deciding factor within football. On so many occas...
Why do some men consider the street as a female meat market?
Pronouncements on sexual inequality in the UK are normally met with an eye roll by my generation. As...
Two-thirds of voters back David Cameron’s call for the size of the state to be slimmed down, a ComRes survey for The Independent discloses today.
The poll also shows that the Conservatives remain on course for a comfortable victory at the general election, despite a small drop in their lead over Labour. The ComRes poll puts the Tories on 40 per cent (up two points since last month), Labour on 27 per cent (up four), the Liberal Democrats on 18 per cent (down five) with other parties on 15 per cent (down one).
There is no sign that the British National Party has achieved an electoral bounce since Nick Griffin’s controversial appearance on BBC1’s Question Time: its support is stuck at just two per cent.
The Tory leadership will be relieved that it has emerged from the party conference season with its lead almost intact at 13 per cent, a fall of two points. It had feared that the party’s gloomy warnings of the need for swingeing cuts in public spending would hit its support.
A large majority of voters said they supported Mr Cameron’s central message to his conference that “big government” needed to be scaled back.
Sixty-seven per cent said they agreed with the Tory leader that “the Government has grown too big and needs a major overhaul to make it smaller”. Just 28 per cent disagreed, with his call for a smaller state supported across the social spectrum.
Andrew Hawkins, the chief executive of ComRes, said: “The Conservatives are on to a winner with this campaign line.”
Today’s survey does, however, carry a new warning to the Tories – and a crumb of comfort to Labour – that the Conservative poll rating is relatively “soft”.
Nearly half of voters (45 per cent) say they agree David Cameron “seems likeable, but I am not sure I am ready to see a Conservative government”, with 49 per cent disagreeing.
Even 38 per cent of Tory supporters agree with the statement, underlining the problem party strategists continue to face in converting hostility to the Brown government into positive support for the Conservatives.
Thirty-six per cent of non-Labour voters also said they would consider backing a party they did not support “just to try to keep Labour out of government”.
The ComRes survey suggests the last conference season before the general election has made little difference to the balance of political support in Britain.
Labour had targeted its gathering in Brighton for the start of a concerted fightback against the Tories and Mr Brown won largely positive reviews for his conference speech.
Although a poll rating of 27 per cent marks a modest recovery from the low-20s over the summer, a 13-point lead for the Tories would be enough to give Mr Cameron a majority of 66 in a general election.
The Liberal Democrats will be disappointed to have fallen back into the high-teens although their 23 per cent rating last month probably reflected the fact that polling was conducted just days after the end of their conference.
Support for other parties remains at an historic high, reflecting the continuing disillusionment with mainstream parties. The Green Party, who are targeting the constituency of Brighton Pavilion for an electoral breakthrough at the election, have five per cent support, with the UK Independence Party on three per cent and the BNP on two per cent.
ComRes telephoned 1004 GB adults between 23rd and 25th October 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
- 1 Mark Zuckerberg saved $111m by selling Facebook shares before stock slumped
- 2 Osborne adviser leaked budget information to Murdoch's man
- 3 Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim
- 4 Schoolboy spiked brownies with cannabis in cookery class
- 5 News in pictures
- 6 Britain's waste: Now it's coming back to haunt us
- 7 Lawyers told Hunt to stay out of Sky deal
- 8 In pictures: The bewildering face of China
- 9 UK plans for euro-immigrants surge
- 10 Is Ridley Scott the most macho man in movies?
- 1 Mark Zuckerberg saved $111m by selling Facebook shares before stock slumped
- 2 Osborne adviser leaked budget information to Murdoch's man
- 3 Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim
- 4 Society: The only way is Finland
- 5 Schoolboy spiked brownies with cannabis in cookery class
- 6 Fat? Really? Olympic hope laughs off official’s jibe – but others aren’t amused
- 7 'Hello mum, this is going to be hard for you to read ...'
- 8 African monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV
- 9 Coke reveals its secret: It may need to carry a cancer warning
- 10 French in uproar over oral sex anti-smoking posters
Experience the Heineken Hub
Get free wi-fi and exclusive i content while you enjoy a tasty pint of Heineken at participating pubs.
Can you imagine a career in teaching?
Be inspired to teach - let real teachers show you how rewarding the job can be.
Playing a game-changing role during the Games
Cisco is providing the solutions for London 2012's complex IT needs.
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page
Ridley Scott: The most macho man in movies?
Gallic gourmets put France back on culinary map
The outsider: Margaret Howell
For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos
Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?



Comments