Times Election Poll - Week 2

MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,114 adults aged 18+ at 83 enumeration district sampling points across Great Britain. All interviews were conducted face-to-face in-home on 8 April 1997, and the results published in The Times on 10 April 1997. The voting intention figures exclude those who say they would not vote (8%), are undecided (12%) or refuse to name a party (4%). An asterisk (*) denotes a figure below 0.5%, but not zero.

 

Q1 How do you intend to vote in the General Election on May 1st? [If undecided or refused at Q1] Q2 Which party are you most inclined to support? Base: 1,114

Conservative	34%
Labour	49%
Liberal Democrats	12%
Scottish/Welsh Nationalist	3%
Referendum Party	1%
Other	1%
Would not vote	8%
Undecided	12%
Refused	4%

Q3 Can you tell me how likely you are to get along to vote in the General Election? Base: All

	%
Certain to vote	62
Very likely to vote	13
Quite likely to vote	11
Not very likely to vote	6
Certain not to vote	7
Don't know	2

Q4 How strongly do you support the..(PARTY NAMED IN Q1 or Q2). Do you support them very strongly, fairly strongly, not very strongly or not strongly at all? Base: All naming party (845)

	All	Lab	Con	Lib Dem
	%	%	%	%
Very strongly	23	27	21	14
Fairly strongly	49	47	50	55
Not very strongly	23	22	23	24
Not strongly at all	4	4	5	6
Don't know	1	0	1	1

Q5 Have you definitely decided to vote for the...(PARTY NAMED IN Q1 or Q2) party or is there a chance you may change your mind before you vote? Base: All naming party (845)

	%
Definitely decided	68
May change mind	28
Don't know	4

Q6 If you do change your mind about voting for the...(PARTY NAMED IN Q1 or Q2), which party would you vote for instead? Base: All who may change their mind (232)

	%
Conservative	15
Labour	23
Liberal Democrat	20
Scot / Welsh Nationalists	4
Green Party	2
Referendum Party	3
Other	1
	%
None of them/would not vote	6
Don't know	26

Q7 Who do you think would make the most capable Prime Minister, Mr Major, Mr Blair or Mr Ashdown? Base: All

	%
Major	27
Blair	35
Ashdown	14
Don't know	24

Q8-9 On balance do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements? Base: All

	Agree	Disagree	Don't know
	%	%	%
Labour is ready to form the next Government	55	33	12
Tony Blair is ready to be Prime Minister	53	34	13

Q10 Looking ahead to the General Election, which, if any of these issues do you think will be very important to you in helping you decide which party to vote for?)

	%
Animal welfare	10
Constitution/devolution	7
Defence	12
Education	61
Europe	22
Health care	68
Housing	22
Law and order	51
Managing the economy	30
Northern Ireland	12
Pensions	39
Protecting the natural environment	20
Public transport	18
Taxation	33
Trade unions	9
Unemployment	49
Other	2
Don't know	2

Q11 I am going to read out a list of problems facing Britain today and for each one, I would like you to tell me whether you think that the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrat or some other party has the best policy on each.

	Con	Lab	Lib Dem	Other	None	Don't know
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Animal welfare	6	12	6	6	8	63
Constitution/devolution	22	20	6	3	5	44
Defence	32	18	4	1	5	40
Education	21	40	15	1	3	21
Europe	25	24	6	3	6	36
Health care	15	47	9	1	4	24
Housing	16	40	4	1	4	35
Law and order	28	29	5	1	6	30
Managing the economy	33	26	5	1	5	29
Northern Ireland	25	16	3	1	11	45
Pensions	17	37	5	2	5	35
Protecting the natural environment	10	16	13	14	7	39
Public transport	11	36	5	2	7	39
Taxation	28	29	11	1	5	27
Trade unions	21	39	3	1	4	32
Unemployment	18	42	5	1	5	29

Q12 I am going to read out a list of problems facing Britain today and for each one, I would like you to tell me whether you think that the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrat or some other party has the best policy on each. Base: All naming issues as important

	Con	Lab	Lib Dem	Other	None	Don't know
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Animal welfare	8	21	5	7	7	53
Constitution/devolution	41	20	11	8	1	20
Defence	45	15	5	2	2	32
Education	18	41	18	1	2	19
Europe	38	19	8	6	7	22
Health care	13	51	10	1	4	22
Housing	11	48	5	1	5	29
Law and order	32	30	6	1	5	27
Managing the economy	45	23	5	0	3	24
Northern Ireland	31	22	4	0	7	35
Pensions	18	43	7	2	4	25
Protecting the natural environment	13	12	13	23	4	36
Public transport	7	44	12	4	5	27
Taxation	41	26	8	1	3	22
Trade unions	22	57	2	3	2	15
Unemployment	12	50	5	1	4	28

Political Attitudes in Great Britain

Technical details

These are the findings of a poll conducted by Market & Opinion Research International (MORI) on behalf of the The Times Newspaper.

MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,114 adults aged 18+ at 83 enumeration district sampling points across Great Britain. Fieldwork was conducted in-home on 8 April 1997.

At the analysis stage, the data were weighted to match the population profile.

The voting intention figures excludes those who say they would not vote (8%), are undecided (12%) or refuse to name a party (4%).

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.

Publication of the data - 10 April 1997

As with all our studies, any press release or publication of the findings requires the advance approval of MORI. Such approval will only be refused on the grounds of inaccuracy or misinterpretation.