What the public really think about Theresa May’s Conservative Party conference speech

The Independent's focus group shed some light on how the public might have received the keynote speech

The public does not believe Theresa May will deliver on her conference speech pledge to cap energy prices, according to the views reflected by The Independent’s new focus group,

Immediately after the keynote speech – beset by a series of unfortunate incidents, including an incessant cough and a prankster handing the Prime Minister a P45 – BMG researchers conducted two in-person discussion groups that were balanced by age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background and political partisanship.

In one group all respondents thought the policy to cap energy prices in Britain was positive but none of them believed that Ms May would deliver on the pledge to crackdown on “rip off” energy bills for UK consumers.

But the participants in the focus group expressed sympathy for the Prime Minister when Simon Brodkin – the notorious prankster better known for his character Lee Nelson – handed Ms May a fake P45 during her speech, claiming to be from the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

“I think it was a total, unacceptable, lack of security,” one said. “It was a comedian, but it could have been someone else who wanted to kill Theresa May.”

Another added: “It could have been an acid attack, could have been anything”.

On the persistent cough suffered by the Prime Minister the respondents gave varying feedback. While one said it was “disgusting” and “unprofessional”, another added: “I sometimes suffer from that in the courts and what have you – it’s awful. She coped with that really well, and again came out with a little joke.

A third added: “To be honest I just thought – I didn’t write anything about the cough. I just thought, pretty normal thing you know, it just occurred you know. I can’t believe people were being horrible about it.”

Asked about the apology issued by Ms May during the speech for the general election result the panel appeared divided. “It’s very difficult to say sorry in public so I thought she came across very well there,” one said.

Another participant added: “Unlike any other politician, who normally tries to fluff it over, cover it up and blame somebody else, she didn’t do that she said, it was me.

But others criticised the Prime Minister’s failure to turn up to a debate with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn during the election campaign earlier this year. “It just made think about her as a leader she’s not strong enough,” one participant said. “She can’t even turn up to a debate with Corbyn – well what chance do we have for her to lead the country?”

Source note: On Wednesday 4 October , BMG Research conducted two in person discussion groups for the Independent, just hours after Theresa May finished delivering her 2017 party conference speech. Highlights and key moments were shown to participants who were asked for their reaction, before themes relating to the content of the clip were explored in more detail. The groups were recruited, moderated, recorded and final results analysed by BMG Research.

www.bmgresearch.co.uk/independentdiscussions