More than 40 per cent of respondents say David Cameron is “intelligent”, but Gordon Brown is seen as more “compassionate” than last month.
Support for the opposition Conservative Party and the governing Labour Party increased in Great Britain, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.
The online survey of a representative national sample of 2,002 British adults also provides a review of the three main political leaders across 18 positive and negative attributes, as well as ten tasks, and three curiosities.
Voting Intention
Across Great Britain, 40 per cent of decided voters and leaners (+2 since last week) would support the Conservative candidate in their constituency if a General Election were held tomorrow.
The governing Labour Party remains in second place with 26 per cent (+1), followed by the Liberal Democrats with 18 per cent (-2).
The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) is fourth with six per cent (=), followed by the British National Party (BNP) with four per cent (+1), and the Green Party with two per cent (-1).
Regional Breakdowns
At least 40 per cent of decided voters and leaners in London, South of England and Midlands and Wales would support the Tories in the next General Election.
Labour remains on top in Scotland (34%), followed by the Tories with 22 per cent, the Scottish National Party (SNP) with 20 per cent, and the Lib-Dems with 16 per cent. Labour remains closer to the Tories in the North (Con. 35%, Lab. 32%).
The Lib-Dems stand at 23 per cent in the South of England, ahead of Labour by five points but still behind the Tories by a significant margin.
Other Demographics
The Conservatives remain the favourite choice for voters over the age of 55 (44%, ahead of the combined totals for Labour and the Lib-Dems in this group) and hold a 12-point lead over Labour amongst voters aged 34 to 54.
Labour is holding on to last week’s gains among respondents aged 18 to 34. Once again, the two main parties are virtually tied (Con. 35%, Lab. 33%), with the Liberal Democrats a distant third (19%).
Attributes
Gordon Brown: The incumbent Prime Minister garners the highest proportion of responses in eight negative categories: out of touch (45%), boring (42%), inefficient (35%), weak (34%), secretive (28%), foolish (23%), dishonest (23%) and uncaring (17%).
Still, Brown made some gains following his appearance on Piers Morgan’s talk show on ITV1. Compared to last month, more people are referring to Brown as compassionate (18%, +4), and fewer deem him out of touch (45%, -3), boring (42%, -4), weak (34%, -4), inefficient (35%, -4), dishonest (23%, -3) and uncaring (17%, -3).
David Cameron: The Conservative leader is ahead of his rivals in seven positive attributes: intelligent (43%), in touch (21%), open (20%), efficient (20%), compassionate (19%), strong (19%) and exciting (7%).
Cameron is also first in one negative trait, with 34 per cent of respondents branding him as arrogant. His ratings did not undergo a major shift since January, aside from a three-point increase in arrogant and a three-point drop in boring.
Nick Clegg: As was the case last month, the Liberal Democrat leader is ahead of his two main rivals as being down to earth (21%). However, the only other three attributes issues where Clegg gets more than 20 per cent are intelligent (25%), weak (21%), and boring (21%). Clegg is tied with Cameron for the top score on honest (18%).
Tasks
Gordon Brown: While Brown trails Cameron on each one of the ten tasks that are reviewed, he did manage to win some points on babysitting kids (18%, +8), being part of a trivia quiz team (+5), and recommending a good book to read (+3).
David Cameron: A larger proportion of people than last month regard Cameron as the best person to represent the country on trade and security issues (31%, +4) and act as the head of the armed forces (29%, +4).
Nick Clegg: The Liberal Democrat leader does not reach the 20 per cent mark on any of the tasks at hand, but is slightly ahead of Brown on being the preferred person to have a beer with (17%) and a good teammate for sports (16%).
Curiosities
Aside from a five-point jump in the proportion of respondents who would like to read Gordon Brown’s memoirs (26%), there was little movement on the three curiosities. Roughly half of respondents have no interest in finding out how the leaders were like in high school, or watching them on a reality TV show.
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Full Report, Detailed Tables and Methodology (PDF)
CONTACT:
Andy Morris, Research Director, London
+ 44-207-065-7272
andy.morris@angus-reid.com
