Witney Poll

Constituency poll following Shaun Woodward's switch from Conservative to Labour

15 February 2000

QV1 How would you vote if there were a General Election tomorrow? QV2 Which party are you more inclined to support?

	10-13 Feb	Witney GE '97
	%	%
Conservative	43	43
Labour	36	31
Liberal Democrat	18	20
Green	2	*
Democratic/UKIP/Referendum Party	*	5
Other	1	1
Undecided	15	n/a
Refused	5	n/a
Would not vote	8	n/a

Q3 Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with ... ?

	Satisfied	Dissatisfied	Don't know
	%	%	%
The way the Government is running the country
Witney 10-13 Feb	34	54	12
(GB 20-25 Jan)	37	51	12
The way Mr Blair is doing his job as Prime Minister
Witney 10-13 Feb	46	44	10
(GB 20-25 Jan)	53	38	9

Q4 What is the name of the Member of Parliament for this constituency (Witney)?

	%
Douglas Hurd	1
Evan Harris	1
Shaun Woodward	44
Tony Baldry	1
Other	1
Don't know	53

Q5 Shaun Woodward is the current MP for Witney, elected as a Conservative in 1997. Last year he left the Conservative Party and joined the Labour Party. Were you aware of this, or not, before today?

	%
Yes, was aware	83
No, was not aware	16
Don't know/Can't remember	2

Q6 Do you think that Shaun Woodward was right or wrong to leave the Conservative Party and join the Labour Party?

	%
Right	36
Wrong	35
Neither	14
Don't know	15

Q7 How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statement:

A) Shaun Woodward retains my confidence as MP for Witney even though he was elected as a Conservative MP but has now left the Conservative Party and joined the Labour Party

B) An MP who changes political parties should have to resign his/her seat and there should be a by-election in the constituency

	A	B
	%	%
Strongly agree	11	51
Tend to agree	22	21
Neither agree nor disagree	10	5
Tend to disagree	14	10
Strongly disagree	35	9
Don't know	8	0

Q8 Do you think that, as Shaun Woodward was elected as a Conservative MP but has now left the Conservative Party and joined the Labour Party, he should ...

	%
Resign from Parliament so that a by-election can be held in this constituency	57
Remain the MP for Witney until the next General Election	37
Neither	2
Don't know	4

Q9 If a by-election were held in this constituency before the next general election, how likely, if at all, would you be to get along and vote?

	%
Certain not to vote	6
Very unlikely to vote	6
Fairly unlikely to vote	6
Fairly likely to vote	16
Very likely to vote	17
Certain to vote	47
Don't know	3

If you did vote in a by-election here in Witney, which party would you vote for, assuming that Shaun Woodward was the Labour Party candidate?

Q10 Which party would you be most inclined to support?

		Certain to vote
	%	%
Conservative	42	46
Labour	38	33
Liberal Democrat	18	20
Green	2	*
Democratic/UKIP/Referendum Party	*	*
Other	1	*
Undecided	12	6
Refused	4	5
Would not vote	4	1

Q11 If you did vote in a by-election here in Witney, which party would you vote for, assuming that Shaun Woodward was not the Labour Party candidate? Q12 Which party would you be inclined to support?

		Certain to vote
	%	%
Conservative	42	47
Labour	37	32
Liberal Democrat	18	20
Green	2	*
Democratic/UKIP/Referendum Party	*	*
Other	1	0
Undecided	13	7
Refused	5	5
Would not vote	4	*

Q13 Which party did you vote at the last General Election in May 1997? If you did not vote, or cannot remember, please say so.

	All	All naming party
	%	%
Conservative	32	41
Labour	32	41
Liberal Democrat	11	14
Green	*	*
Democratic/UKIP/Referendum Party	1	1
Other	1	1
Did not vote	17	-
Refused	4	-
Can't remember	2	-

Q14 Which, if any, of these publications do you read regularly? By regularly I mean 3 out of every 4 issues.

	%
Oxford Times	29
Free Newspaper	28
Oxford Mail	32
Witney Gazette	26
Banbury Guardian	7
Other	*
None of these	28

Technical details

Poll conducted on behalf of the Woodward Resignation Commitee MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,000 adults aged 18+. Interviews were carried out by telephone throughout the constituency between 10-13 February 2000. All respondents are eligible to vote in Witney. Data are weighted to the known population profile. Where percentages do not add up to exactly 100% this may be due to computer rounding, the exclusion of "don't knows" or to multiple answers. An asterisk (*) indicates a figure below one half of a percent.

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