First Time Voters, 1997

Poll of first time voters in 1997.

30 March 1997

MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 980 18-22 year-olds and 23-27 year-olds who had not voted in the 1992 General Election
Interviews were conducted face-to-face in 89 constituencies throughout Great Britain on March 25th and 26th, 1997
An asterisk (*) denotes a figure below 0.5, but not zero

Q1 How do you intend to vote at the General Election on May 1? (If undecided or refused at Q1) Q2 Which party are you most inclined to support? Base: All first time electors (980)

Conservative	All	22%
	Male	23%
	Female	20%
Labour	All	62%
	Male	59%
	Female	64%
Liberal Democrats	All	9%
	Male	9%
	Female	10%
Other	All	7%
	Male	9%
	Female	6%

	First Time Electors	Gen. Public MORI/Times 21-24/3/97
	%	%
Conservative	22	29
Labour	62	50
Liberal Democrat	9	14
Green Party	3	1
Referendum Party	1	3
SNP/Plaid Cymru	3	3
Socialist Labour Party	*	1
Other	*

Would not vote	15	7
Undecided	15	10
Refused	1	2

Q3 Can you tell me how likely you are to get along to vote at the General election? Base: All first time electors (980)

	First Time Electors	Gen. Public MORI/Times 21-24/3/97
	%	%
Certain to vote	31	66
Very likely to vote	15	12
Quite likely to vote	22	8
Not very likely to vote	16	4
Certain not to vote	31	8
Don't know	3	2

Q4 If not very likely to vote ... Why would you not vote Base: All certain not/unlikely to vote (272)

	%
Not interested in political/can't be bothered/don't know enough about it	55
Don't trust any politicians	10
Won't make a difference	17
None of the parties/candidates appeal to me	6
Not registered to vote	7
Will not be in the constituency at the time	4
Will be too busy to vote	4
Other	17
Don't know	4

Q5 Which of these describe why you are inclined to vote for the ... PARTY MENTIONED AT Q 1/2? Base: All intending to vote for/supporting party at Q1/2 (668)

	All	Cons	Lab
	%	%	%
Attracted by their policies	29	29	28
Put off by the policies of the other main party/ies	22	31	19
Attracted to their leader	8	8	8
Put off by the leader of the other main party/ies	14	17	11
Attracted to the party generally	18	20	17
Do not like the other main party/ies	18	19	18
Feel it is time for a change	31	1	44
None of these	4	9	2
No opinion	7	4	7

Q6 Which, if any, of these issues do you think will be important to you in helping you decide which party to vote for / whether to vote Base: All first time electors (980)

	%
Abortion	12
Animal rights	22
Drug abuse	23
Legalisation of drugs	14
Defence	11
Devolution	5
Education	62
Environment	30
Europe	21
Health care	51
Housing	36
Jobs	59
Law & order	31
Managing the economy	21
Minimum wage	31
Public transport	17
Social security / benefits	25
Taxation	31
Trade unions	8
Training	17
Other	2
None of these / don't know	5

Q7 Which party do you trust the most to do the right thing on the following? Base: All first time electors (980)

	Con	Lab	Lib Dem	Other	None	Don't know
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Education	16	39	7	1	10	27
Europe	22	22	5	2	11	38
Jobs	14	45	4	1	10	26
Health care	12	42	6	1	8	31
Law & order	22	27	3	1	10	37
Taxation	19	28	7	1	11	34
Environment	9	20	12	16	9	34
Public transport	11	33	5	3	9	39
Defence	26	20	3	2	9	40
Animal welfare	8	19	7	14	10	42

Q8 Please could you look at these photographs and tell me the name of each politician? Base: All first time electors (980)

	John Major	%
	Correct	97
	Incorrect	0
	Don't know	3
	Tony Blair	%
	Correct	78
	Incorrect	1
	Don't know	21
	Paddy Ashdown	%
	Correct	62
	Incorrect	2
	Don't know	36
	Michael Portillo	%
	Correct	31
	Incorrect	2
	Don't know	67
	Gordon Brown	%
	Correct	14
	Incorrect	2
	Don't know	84
	Virginia Bottomly	%
	Correct	38
	Incorrect	3
	Don't know	59
	Michael Howard	%
	Correct	18
	Incorrect	4
	Don't know	78

	Robin Cook	%
	Correct	17
	Incorrect	3
	Don't know	80
	John Prescott	%
	Correct	17
	Incorrect	5
	Don't know	78
	Clare Short	%
	Correct	13
	Incorrect	2
	Don't know	85
	William Hague	%
	Correct	4
	Incorrect	1
	Don't know	95
	Kenneth Clarke	%
	Correct	25
	Incorrect	2
	Don't know	73
	Michael Heseltine	%
	Correct	54
	Incorrect	2
	Don't know	44
	Jack Straw	%
	Correct	7
	Incorrect	2
	Don't know	91

Q9 Out of John Major and Tony Blair, whom would you most like to have a drink with? Base: All first time electors (980)

John Major	19%
Tony Blair	49%
Neither	29%
Don't know	3%

Q10 And which party do you think can be trusted most to keep their promises if they won the election - the Conservative Party or Labour? Base: All first time electors (980)

Conservative	15%
Labour	43%
No real difference	29%
Don't know	3%

Q11 Do you think that you personally are likely to be financially better off under a Conservative or Labour Government? Base: All first time electors (980)

Conservative	20%
Labour	38%
No real difference	22%
Don't know	20%

Q12 Which of these parties have you heard of? And which do you think have policies which you would generally support/not support? Base: All first time electors (980)

Q13 Thinking about the last few years of your formal education, how satisfied or dissatisfied were you with this education? Base: All first time electors (980)

Technical details

MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 980 18-22 year-olds and 23-27 year-olds who had not voted in the 1992 General Election. Interviews were conducted face-to-face in 89 constituencies throughout Great Britain on March 25th and 26th, 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.

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