Ipsos Election Briefing

Ipsos's Election Briefing - held on 10 April 2015 - reveals the views of our elected (and unelected) politicians on how companies should act, industry favourability, lobbying, and the issues facing Britain today.

In the run up to this year’s general election, Ipsos interviewed 98 prospective parliamentary candidates (PPCs) standing in Britain’s most marginal seats. Fighting for election in the marginals, these candidates are potential members of the future UK parliament, and as such their opinions can give us insight into the government’s legislative agenda post-2015.

Judgement of companies

That a company acts with honesty and integrity is one of the most important factors in shaping politicians’ opinions of companies or organisations: four-fifths (83%) of prospective parliamentary candidates (PPCs) say this is extremely important and two-thirds (69%) of MPs say the same.

The quality of a company’s products or services and how they treat their employees are also seen as important: two-thirds (66%) of PPCs say the quality of products and services is extremely important in shaping their judgement of a company and three-fifths (57%) of MPs say the same. Three-fifths (60%) of PPCs say how they treat their employees is extremely important and just under half (46%) of MPs say the same.

 

However, a deeper analysis of the results reveals clear party differences. Of utmost importance for both Labour PPCs and Labour MPs is how a company treats their employees: 79% of Labour PPCs and 62% of Labour MPs say this compared to 38% of Conservative PPCs and 26% of Conservative MPs..

On the other hand, a company’s financial performance is of more importance for Conservatives than for Labour politicians: one-third (35%) of Conservative PPCs and a quarter (26%) of Conservative MPs say a company’s financial performance is extremely important in shaping their opinion of the organisation compared to just 10% of Labour PPCs and 20% of Labour MPs who say the same.

Industry favourability

When it comes to industry favourability, politicians are particularly favourable towards the manufacturers. The automotive industry in particular enjoys high favourability with 73% of PPCs and 80% of MPs saying they are favourable towards it. This is fairly closely matched across both the Labour and Conservative parties.

 

Banking and financial services score poorly, with more PPCs and MPs saying they are unfavourable than favourable: 52% of PPCs and 60% of MPs say they are unfavourable towards banking and 36% and 45% respectively say the same of financial services. However, there is a clear party division here: both banking and financial services enjoy higher levels of favourability amongst Conservative politicians with 46% of Conservative PPCs and 28% of Conservative MPs saying they are favourable towards banking and 54% of Conservative PPCs and 44% of Conservative MPs favourable towards financial services. This is markedly different from Labour politicians: only 3% of Labour PPCs and no Labour MPs say they are favourable towards banking and just 7% of Labour PPCs and 10% of Labour MPs are favourable to the financial services industry.

Issues facing Britain today

By and large, PPCs are united in the belief that the economy and the NHS are the most important issues facing Britain today: 68% and 53% of PPCs mention these issues respectively, making them the most frequently mentioned issues overall. The economy and the NHS are also key issues for MPs, while they are more likely to mention immigration than PPCs.

 

In line with Conservative party campaigning, government spending/the deficit is seen as a more important issue by Conservative PPCs (although still some way behind the economy and the NHS): one-third (35%) of Conservative PPCs say this is one of the most important issues facing Britain today while none of the Labour PPCs interviewed in this study say the same. This rings true in Parliament: with Conservative MPs interviewed in the winter of 2014 over three times as likely as Labour MPs to mention the debt/deficit as being one of the most important issues facing Britain.

Similarly, inequality and housing is more likely to be mentioned by Labour PPCs: 24% and 21% of Labour PPCs mention these issues respectively. In contrast, no Conservative PPC who took part in the study mentioned inequality and housing as important issues facing Britain, and just 7% of Conservative MPs mentioned housing, compared to one in five Labour MPs.

Lobbying

Almost half (47%) of MPs say they are favourable towards lobbying as it currently operates, with only 9% saying they are very unfavourable towards lobbying. In all likelihood this is because three-quarters (73%) say they think lobbying is useful in helping MPs understand issues facing businesses.

However, whilst almost half of MPs are favourable towards lobbying, only 3% say they think the public are favourable. In reality, a quarter (25%) of the general public say they are favourable towards lobbyists, and 47% say they think lobbying is useful is helping MPs understand issues facing businesses. However three-quarters (74%) say MPs are not transparent enough about their lobbying activities and 53% are still unfavourable towards the lobbying industry as a whole.

Carl Phillips, Head of Key Influencer Tracking at Ipsos says:

“While everyone values honesty and integrity, candidates, as well as MPs, judge companies according to different standards depending upon their political affiliation. Similarly, the two parties favour different industry sectors. Government Affairs teams should bear this in mind when planning strategy for the new Parliament."

Technical note:

Methodology (Parliamentary Candidates survey)

  • Ipsos interviewed 98 potential parliamentary candidates between 3rd February and 13th March 2015
  • The party split was 26 Conservative, 29 Labour, 20 Liberal Democrats, 11 SNP, 7 UKIP, 4 Green and 1 from Plaid Cymru
  • Candidates from the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat political parties were selected to take part on the condition that they were inheriting a safe seat from an MP in their party who is stepping down, or that they are contesting a seat where they need a swing of less than 15% to win (based on 2010 election results)
  • Candidates from the other parties were selected for constituencies where they had the most chance of winning.

Methodology (MPs survey)

  • Ipsos interviewed 107 Members of Parliament between 4 November and 19 December 2014.
  • The party split was 47 Conservative, 47 Labour, 11 Liberal Democrat and 2 other MPs.
  • The survey was carried out face-to-face.

Methodology (Political Monitor)

  • Ipsos carried out 1025 face-to-face interviews with members of the general public between 8th and 11th March 2015.

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