Britons predict a good year ahead in 2017 for Theresa May, Sadiq Khan and themselves

As an eventful year draws to a close Ipsos’s latest Political Monitor reveals who Britons think will enjoy good fortune in 2017. Half (51%) believe 2017 will be a good year for Prime Minister Theresa May (35% think a bad year) including three in four (74%) Conservative supporters. Just one in five (21%) however believe it will be a good year for opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn with two in three (66%) believing he will have a bad year. This pessimism for Mr Corbyn is also evident with supporters of the Labour party where 46% think he will have a bad year and 42% good.

Despite positive prospects for Theresa May the public are split when considering her party with 43% thinking it will be a good year for the Conservatives and two in five (41%) thinking it will be bad. This outlook is still more positive than that for the Labour party where one in four (23%) think it will be a good year versus two in three (65%) who think it will be a bad one. The public are also split on the prospects for the Liberal Democrats (39% think they will have a good year and 41% think it will be bad) as well as the UK Independence Party (41% think they will have a good year and 44% think it will be bad).

 

It is not doom and gloom for all of Labour however as a majority (58%) think 2017 will be a good year for London Mayor Sadiq Khan (19% think a bad year) climbing to three in four (73%) Londoners. Mr Khan’s predecessor and now Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson however fares less well with half (48%) thinking he will have a bad year compared with two in five (40%) thinking it will be good. Britons are split when considering the country as a whole with 45% thinking it will be a good year for the United Kingdom and 43% thinking it will be a bad year. This is still less pessimistic however than what the public think 2017 will bring both the European Union (18% say a good year and 69% a bad year) and the United States (28% say a good year and 59% say a bad year). But it is the public themselves who Britons think will most prosper in 2017 – when ask about ‘you and your family’ seven in ten (72%) say it will be a good year for them and 16% say a bad year.  Gideon Skinner, Head of Political Research at Ipsos MORI, said:

“The public’s expectations of winners and losers in 2017 suggests they see little reason to change their current views of the political scene.  Theresa May and Sadiq Khan stand out, although both outperform their parties – by a long way in the case of Labour.  A week is a long time in politics, and a year even more so, especially with Brexit on the horizon, but Labour has a long way to go to win back the confidence of the public.”

• Download the tables (PDF)
• Download the top line (PDF)
• Download the charts (PDF)

Technical note Ipsos interviewed a representative sample of 1,003 adults aged 18+ across Great Britain. Interviews were conducted by telephone 9th – 12th December 2016.  Data are weighted to the profile of the population.