Best Parties on Key Issues - March 2010
Ipsos's March Political Monitor shows that, of the issues put to respondents, the Conservative party is ahead on having the best policies on asylum, crime, defence, and reforming MPs' expenses. The Labour party is ahead with healthcare, unemployment, benefits and climate change (in the case of the latter, on parity with the Lib Dems). There is less consensus, however, with education, the management of the economy and taxation.
Crucially, given that the economy is the most important issue in helping people decide how to vote (32%), neither of the main two parties have established a clear lead on managing it. Three in ten (29%) believe that the Conservative party has the best policies on managing the economy, and 26% believe this to be true of Labour. Both parties share of public 'faith' in them are similar to those reported in September 2009 (30% Conservative, 25% Labour). Indeed, the last time that Labour were seen to perform best at the economy was September 2007, when they led the Conservative party by 25 points (13% versus 38%). At the time, they also led the Conservative party by 13 points in terms of voting support. Indeed, up until that point, they were seen to be the best party at managing the economy since being elected to power in 1997, but this change coincided with the run on Northern Rock and the subsequent decline in Labour's poll ratings. It might be argued that the two 'flagship' issues for the two leading parties are, for the Conservative party, crime, and for the Labour party, healthcare. They are seen to have the best policies on each by a third (33%), in both cases leading the other party by 10 percentage points. Indeed, the Conservatives have been seen to have the best policies on crime since 2003, and for much of the intervening years, crime has been amongst the most important issues facing the country. Labour have led on healthcare since we first asked the question in April 1978. Full trends for the Best Party on Key Issues questions, some going back to 1977, can be found here.Technical details
Ipsos interviewed a representative sample of 1,503 adults aged 18+ across Great Britain. Interviews were conducted by telephone 19-22 March 2010. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population.Where percentages do not sum to 100, this may be due to computer rounding, the exclusion of “don’t know” categories, or multiple answers. An asterisk (*) denotes any value of less than half a per cent. Voting intention figures exclude those who say they would not vote, are undecided or refuse to name a party and in the headline figures, those who are not absolutely certain to vote.More insights about Public Sector
