Just over a year after becoming Lib Dem leader Tim Farron still to make a breakthrough with the public
Just one in five (22%) Britons say they are satisfied with how Tim Farron is doing his job as leader of the party while one in three (33%) say they are dissatisfied leaving him with a net satisfaction score of -11. This is very similar to his rating a year ago of -7. Further, almost half (45%) surveyed said that they ‘don’t know’ indicating the public are still unfamiliar with Mr Farron a year on after taking leadership of the party. This remains the case even amongst his own party supporters with one in three (35%) Liberal Democrat supporters saying they ‘don’t know’ although half (48%) say they are satisfied with his performance and 17% dissatisfied.
When asked to compare Tim Farron with the Liberal Democrat party 23% stated that they like Mr. Farron (down 1 point from September 2015) and just under half (46%) say they don’t like him (up two points). Slightly more (28%) say they like the Liberal Democrats (no change from last year) while two in five (41%) say they don’t like them (up 1 point).
Commenting on the findings, Gideon Skinner, Head of Political Research, Ipsos, said:“As a sign of the hard times facing the Liberal Democrats, they have been in single figures in our voting intentions for 26 of the last 30 months. Before 2011, they had not been in single figures for twenty years.”
Ipsos Political Monitor: September 2016 from Ipsos
Notes to Editors Ipsos interviewed a representative sample of 1,000 adults aged 18+ across Great Britain. Interviews were conducted by telephone 10th- 14th September 2016. Data are weighted to the profile of the population.
