Political Attitudes in Great Britain, January 1997

MORI Political Monitor survey for The Times, including additional questions on Labour's readiness for government and the Conservative "New Labour, New Danger" campaigning slogan

31 January 1997

MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,707 adults aged 18+ at 166 sampling points across Great Britain. Fieldwork was conducted face-to-face on 24-28 January 1997, as part of MORI's regular Omnibus survey. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population.

Q1 How would you vote if there were a General Election tomorrow? IF UNDECIDED OR REFUSED AT Q1 Q2 Which party are you most inclined to support?

	%
Conservative	30
Labour	55
Liberal Democrats (Lib Dem)	11
Scottish/Welsh Nationalist	2
Green Party	1
Referendum Party	1
Other	1
Voting intention percentages exclude 6% undecided, 2% refused and 9% would not vote

Q3 Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way the Government is running the country? Q4 Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way Mr Major is doing his job as Prime Minister? Q5 Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way Mr Blair is doing his job as Leader of the Labour Party? Q6 Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way Mr Ashdown is doing his job as Leader of the Liberal Democrats?

		Satisfied	Dissatisfied	Don't know
Government	%	21	71	8
Major	%	31	61	8
Blair	%	50	32	18
Ashdown	%	43	24	33

Q7 What would you say is the most important issue facing Britain today? Q8 What do you see as other important issues facing Britain today? UNPROMPTED ANSWERS

	Q7	Q7/8
	%	%
AIDS	*	1
Animal welfare	*	1
Beef/BSE/Mad Cow Disease	*	2
Common Market/EU/Europe/Single European Currency	18	29
Crime/law & order/violence/vandalism	6	22
Defence/foreign affairs	*	2
Drug abuse	1	4
Economy/economic situation	8	19
Education/schools	12	43
Housing	2	9
Inflation/prices	1	3
Local government/council tax	*	2
Morality/individual behaviour	1	5
National Health Service/Hospitals	16	49
Northern Ireland	*	2
Nuclear power/fuels	0	*
Nuclear weapons/nuclear war/disarmament	*	1
Pensions/social security	2	12
Pollution/environment	1	5
Pound/exchange rate/value of pound	*	1
Privatisation	*	2
Race relations/immigration/immigrants	*	2
Scottish Assembly	*	*
Taxation	1	4
Trade unions/strikes	0	*
Unemployment/factory closure/lack of industry	18	36
Other	6	18
Don't know	5	4

Q9 Do you think that the general economic condition of the country will improve, stay the same, or get worse over the next 12 months?

	%
Improve	25
Stay the same	39
Get worse	25
Don't know	10

Q10 Which of these statements comes closest to your views of Mr Major? Q11 Which of these statements comes closest to your views of Mr Blair?

	Major	Blair
	%	%
I like him and I like his policies	19	35
I like him but I dislike his policies	32	18
I dislike him but I like his policies	8	13
I dislike him and I dislike his policies	32	22
No opinion	9	13

Total like him	51	53
Total dislike him	40	35
Net like him	11	18

Total like his policies	27	48
Total dislike his policies	64	40
Net like his policies	-37	8

Q On balance do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements? Q12 "Labour is ready to form the next government"

	Dec 1994	Jan 1996	Jun 1996	Jan 1997
	%	%	%	%
Agree	66	56	58	58
Disagree	25	33	32	32
No opinion	9	11	10	9
Net agree	+41	+23	+26	+26

Q13 "Tony Blair is ready to be Prime Minister"

	Dec 1994	Jan 1996	Jun 1996	Jan 1997
	%	%	%	%
Agree	59	54	56	54
Disagree	28	34	32	35
No opinion	14	12	12	10
Net agree	+31	+20	+24	+19

Q14 As you may know, the Conservative Party is continuing its advertising campaign using the slogan "New Labour, New Danger" and that “It will all end in tears”. On balance has this campaign made you more favourable towards the Labour Party, less favourable towards the Labour Party, or has it made no difference? Q15 And on balance has this campaign made you more favourable towards the Conservative Party, less favourable towards the Conservative Party, or has it made no difference?

	Towards Labour	Towards Conservatives
	All	Ex-Con*	New Lab*	All	Ex-Con*	New Lab*
More favourable	14	13	24	2	0	0
Less favourable	5	6	1	32	37	46
Made no difference	77	76	71	62	58	50
Don't know	4	5	4	4	5	4

Net favourable	+9	+8	+23	-30	-37	-46

*"Ex-Con": those who say they voted Conservative in 1992 but would vote for a different party if there were a general election tomorrow; "New Lab": those who would now vote Labour but voted for a different party in 1992

Q16 TO ALL GIVING A VOTING INTENTION AT Q1/Q2 If you were not to vote for the ... party, which party would you vote for instead? Base: All giving a voting intention (1,419)

	Con	Lab	Lib Dem
	%	%	%
Conservative	-	8	27
Labour	14	-	41
Liberal Democrat	36	53	-
Scottish/Welsh Nationalist	1	4	1
Green	2	5	4
Referendum Party	3	2	3
Other	2	2	1
Would not vote	29	19	17
Undecided	10	5	7

Q17 From this card, can you tell me how likely you are to get along to vote in the General Election?

	%
Certain not to vote	8
Not very likely to vote	7
Quite likely to vote	11
Very likely to vote	15
Certain to vote	57
Don't know	2

Q18 Generally speaking, do you think of yourself as Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, or what?

	%
Conservative	29
Labour	39
Liberal Democrat	10
Scottish/Welsh Nationalist	2
Green	1
Other	1
Don't know	4
None of these	13
Refused	2

Q19 Which party did you vote for at the last general election, in April 1992? If you are not sure, or did not vote, please say so.

	%
Conservative	31
Labour	31
Liberal Democrat	10
Scottish/Welsh Nationalist	2
Green	1
Other	*
Did not vote	15
Too young	6
Can't remember	2
Refused	2

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