2010 Post Election Poll

Post-Election Poll for News of the World

Fieldwork 12th - 13th May 2010 

The new government 

Ipsos's first poll since the General Election on May 6^th shows that the public are, on balance, optimistic about the new coalition government: 59% think it will be good thing for the UK, while 45% think it will be good for them personally and most (54%) are hopeful about what the new government will do while a third are fearful (36%). 

It would appear that confidence in no one party having an overall majority has increased since prior to the election: two in five (40%) think a hung parliament is a good thing for the country, compared to 30% the day before the election.

The public are also on the whole positive about the effectiveness of the coalition government; 63% think it will act as a united team, 59% think it will deal effectively with the economy, 55% think it will provide stable government. However, the public are split on whether it will be unable to make decisions (46% think it will be unable to do so). Further, more people (44%) think both parties compromised principles and beliefs in forming the coalition than think it combines the best policies from both parties (35%). 

The coalition deal

Three-quarters (72%) think Cameron was right to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats while two-thirds (64%) think Clegg was right to go in with the Tories. However, Tory voters are happier with Cameron forming a coalition (89%) than Lib Dems are about Clegg doing so (74%).

Clegg is seen to have got the best deal for his party (56%) while, unsurprisingly, only 6% say Brown got the best deal. During the negotiations David Cameron was seen to have acted the most decisively (46%) of the three leaders and to have put the interests of the country first (37%), while Clegg trails behind both Cameron and Brown on both of these. 

Clegg and Cameron

Most of the public now think David Cameron is ready to be Prime Minister (66% compared to 51% before the election) and two-thirds (65%) think the Conservatives are ready to govern, compared to less than half (47%) before the election. However, there are more doubts about the Liberal Democrats' readiness to govern - 40% agree they are ready while 48% disagree. Over half think that Clegg is ready to be Deputy PM (55%), while fewer think the Lib Dems are ready to govern (40%).

The campaign

This poll also shows more evidence of the 'softness' of the Lib Dem vote - two in five Lib Dems decided who to vote for in the last 24 hours (compared to 14% overall, and 10% overall in 2005).

There were high levels of interest in this election - three-quarters say they were interested in election news (75%), compared to 63% in 2005 and 58% in 1997

• Download the topline findings
• Download the data tables
• Download the charts