1997 General Election Panel Survey, Wave 1

• MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,069 adults aged 18+ at 78 enumeration district sampling points across Great Britain
• All interviews were conducted face-to-face in-home on 2-3 April 1997, and the results published in The Independent on Sunday on 6 April 1997
• The voting intention figures exclude those who say they would not vote (6%), are undecided (12%) or refuse to name a party (4%)
• An asterisk (*) denotes a figure below 0.5%, but not zero

Q1 How would you vote if there were a General Election tomorrow? (If undecided or refused at Q1) Q2 Which party are you most inclined to support? Base: 1,069

Conservative	30%
Labour	55%
Liberal Democrats	9%
Scottish/Welsh Nationalist	2%
Green Party	1%
Referendum Party	3%
Other	*%
Would not vote	4%
Undecided	9%
Refused	2%

An asterisk (*) denotes a figure between zero and 0.5%. Voting Intentions: Long Term Trends

Q4 Have you definitely decided to vote for the...PARTY NAMED AT Q1/Q2 or is there a chance you may change your mind before election day?

	%
Definitely decided	67
May change mind	31
Other	1
Don't know	1

Q5 Which of the following comes closest to your reasons for voting for the PARTY NAMED AT Q1/Q2

	%
It is the party that most represents your views	82
The party you support has little chance of winning in this constituency so you vote for the PARTY NAMED AT Q1/2 party to try and keep another party out	11
No opinion	7

Long term trends on this question

Q6 A lot of people aren't sure whether they'll vote at the General Election. Can you tell me how likely you are to get along to vote at the General Election?

	%
Certain not to vote	3
Not very likely to vote	4
Quite likely to vote	13
Very likely to vote	14
Certain to vote	65
Don't know	1

Q7 From this card, how interested would you say you are in politics?

	1973	March 1991	April 1995	April 1997
	%	%	%	%
Very interested	14	13	13	15
Fairly interested	46	47	40	44
Not very interested	27	26	30	29
Not at all interested	13	13	17	11
Don't know	*	*	*	*

Long term trends on this question

Q8 Which of these best describes you opinion on the present system of governing Britain?

	1973	March 1991	April 1995	April 1997
	%	%	%	%
Works extremely well and could not be improved	5	4	3	2
Could be improved in small ways but mainly works well	43	29	19	26
Could be improved quite a lot	35	40	40	40
Needs a great deal of improvement	14	23	35	29
Don't know	4	5	3	3

Long term trends on this question

Q9 Looking at the General Election, which, if any of these issues do you think will be very important to you in helping you decide which party to vote for?

	%
Animal welfare	12
Constitution/Devolution	10
Defence	12
Education	62
Europe	24
Health care	70
Housing	28
Law and order	50
Managing the economy	32
Northern Ireland	11
Pensions	42
Protecting the natural environment	24
Public transport	21
Taxation	35
Trade unions	10
Unemployment	45
Other	1
None of these	2
Don't know	-

Q10 Apart from the issues you have just selected, which of the issues on this list do you think will be very important to you in helping you decide which party to vote for?

	%
Pay and conditions for part-time workers	25
A minimum wage	39
Maternity/Paternity leave	11
Social services/Care for older people	60
Number of hours in the working week	19
Level of child benefit	17
Access to after school care	16
Access to early years education	26
Availability of childcare facilities	22
Other	1
None of these	10
Don't know	2

Q12 Who do you think would make the most capable Prime Minister, Mr Major, Mr Blair or Mr Ashdown?

	%
Major	27
Blair	39
Ashdown	11
No opinion	22

Long term trends on this question

Q13 Generally speaking, which of the main parties has the best policies for women in Britain, the Conservatives, Labour or the Liberal Democrats?

	Women Nov '96	All	Women
	%	%	%
Conservatives	15	12	16
Labour	31	27	26
Liberal Democrats	10	9	6
None of them	14	11	12
No opinion	30	42	40

Q14-23 On balance do you agree or disagree with the following statements?

	Agree	Disagree	Don't know
	Mar		Mar		Mar
	'92	'97	'92	'97	'92	'97
	%	%	%	%	%	%
In the long term this government's policies will improve the state of Britain's economy	42	36	46	47	12	17
A vote for the Liberal Democrats is a wasted vote	47	50	46	41	7	9
Most people will pay more in taxes if Labour wins the General Election	69	47	22	33	9	20
The trade unions would have too much power under a Labour government	50	31	41	53	9	16
Labour would do a better job of running the economy than the Conservatives		42		35		23
The Conservative government has been responsible for the recent improvements to the state of the economy		42		42		16
The country needs a fresh team of leaders		80		14		6
MPs should be forced to resign if accusations of financial misconduct against them are true		89		8		3
MPs should be forced to resign if accusations of sexual misconduct against them are true		56		36		8
Britain would be better governed if there were more women in Parliament		61		23		16

I'd like to ask you about things that might make you change your vote. Please tell me how likely or unlikely you would be to switch your vote to another party if the candidate of your preferred party... Q24 Favoured banning all handguns Q25 Opposed a woman's right to abortion Q26 Favoured the death penalty

	Q24	Q25	Q26
	%	%	%
Certain to switch	3	6	9
Very likely to switch	4	10	7
Fairly likely to switch	6	13	8
Not very likely to switch	14	17	14
Not at all likely to switch	16	14	15
Certain not to switch	52	29	38
Don't know	5	11	9

Q27 How likely or unlikely are you to read or look at any of the party political manifestos in this election campaign?

	%
Very likely	21
Fairly likely	32
Not very likely	22
Not at all likely	25
Don't know	*

Q28 Which of these statements best describes your attitude to the party election manifestos?

	%
They are important for everybody to read	36
I wouldn't read them but I would hope to hear about them in the media	46
I think they are a waste of time and I wouldn't pay any attention to them	14
None of these	2
Don't know	2

Technical details

MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,069 adults aged 18+ at 78 enumeration district sampling points across Great Britain. Fieldwork was conducted in-home on 2-3rd April 1997. At the analysis stage, the data were weighted to match the population profile. All figures are in percentages. Where percentages do not sum to 100, this may be due to multiple responses, the exclusion of don't knows or computer rounding. An asterisk (*) denotes a figure below 0.5%, but not zero. Publication of the data - 6th April 1997