The latest YouGov poll on voting intentions in the North of England has put the embattled Lib Dems on just 4%. This is some 26% behind their Conservative allies (who are hardly known for their popularity in the region) but, perhaps more notably, 3% behind UKIP.
While some yellow partisans have downplayed the results as a rogue poll, UKIP have revelled in their perceived emergence as a “new choice” in the region. The survey has provided an “I told you so” moment” for others, notable North East Lib Dem councillor Ron Beadle, co-founder of the Liberal Leftgroup:
“The YouGov results confirm what I and others have argued for a long time, namely that joining the coalition is disastrous for the party.”
It’ll take more than holding a conference in Gateshead to turn things around.
4 Comments
It’s only disastrous because they failed to live up to their promises and have the reneged on all that was in their power to implement. Its a PR disaster yes but politically would they have done any different with a majority vote? Since they’ve swayed towards the blue side the entire time they’ve been in office I doubt it. Yellow by colour, blue by nature.
Well done UKIP! Keep it up.
That Yougov 4% is worth as much as Their National Libdem score of 7%, nothing. Over the last 3 months 75,000 voters have voted in actual elections across The UK, The average Libdem vote share was 26%.
Why do actual voters behave so differently ? Because they are faced with a Ballot Paper & the need to decide. Voters in Polls are asked about how they might vote in an Election they know is 3 years away, for most people thats not a real choice.
We will see in May which measure is more accurate.
Please learn to read polls. You can’t just use this data, it’s unweighted (and likely a rogue too).
http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/6195qkb1kr/YG-Archives-Pol-ST-results-17-190212.pdf