Centreground Political Communications Police Commissioners

ComRes interviewed 1,618 adults in Englang and Wales online, on elections for Police Commissioner.

Date Published: 15 May 2012

Categories: Energy | Media | Politics | Public and communities | Public Sector | UK

Description

A new opinion poll of adults in England and Wales who will be having elections for Police Commissioner, commissioned by Centreground Political Communications, carried out by pollsters ComRes, shows how the parties stand in the run up to police commissioner elections in November.

It found:

o Few respondents say they know about the police commissioner elections and what the role will involve (18%) but, when asked, less than a third (28%) say they intend to vote for a police commissioner from the party they would normally support.

o 26% expect to vote for an independent candidate for the role of police commissioner and a further 4% said they would probably vote for a candidate from a different political party in these elections to the one they normally support.

o Nearly one in three Conservative voters (30%) say they expect to vote for an independent, compared to 20% of Labour voters and 28% of Liberal Democrats.

o Over 65s (39%) and AB voters (36%) were more likely than the other age groups and social grades to say they were probably going to vote for an independent candidate.

o Labour supporters were more likely to say they expected to back the party they normally support in the police commissioner elections (40%). Overall, Labour was chosen more often than any other political party as being the “most likely to have the best candidates for the role of police commissioner” (19%).

o Only 3% said they thought the Liberal Democrats were most likely to have the best candidates for the role of police commissioner, fewer than for UKIP (5%).

o When asked what qualities they think a police commissioner should have, the most selected option was that they are tough on crime (47%), followed by experienced of working in law enforcement (44%), a willingnesss to try new and innovate measures (33%), ability to work with lots of different communities (29%) and an independent candidate outside of political party machines (24%).

Chief Executive of Centreground Political Communications Ltd Darren Murphy said, “These elections are unique in our democratic history. The challenge for the political parties is to engage the public interest in new ways whilst not appearing to be politicising policing.”

ComRes interviewed 1,618 adults from England and Wales (excluding London) online on the 4th - 7th May 2012. Data were weighted to be demographically representative of all English and Welsh adults (excluding London). ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.