Skip to Content

ITV News Index

A survey of the public on behalf of ITV.

Date Published: 20 Aug 2012

Categories: Economy | Politics | Public and communities | UK

Description

COMRES/ ITV NEWS POLL: PUBLIC TRUST IN OSBORNE AT ALL TIME LOW AS PUBLIC BORROWING FIGURES ARE PUBLISHED


Public borrowing figures published today are worse than anticipated. Treasury officials have tried to explain the disappointing news by pointing to poor returns in corporation tax. The latest Index poll conducted by ComRes and to be broadcast on ITV News at Ten tonight reveals that public trust scores towards Chancellor George Osborne are at an all-time low, with just 16% of the population who trust him to see the country through the current economic situation and 62% who do not trust him to do this. This is the lowest trust score for Osborne that has been recorded since polling began in October 2010, when 32% trusted him and 37% did not.

The tracker poll also shows that trust for Osborne has fallen steadily since the same question was asked in May 2012 when 23% trusted him and July, which saw one in five (20%) put their trust in the Chancellor.

It’s not just Osborne who has lost the trust of the public. Back in October 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron had a trust score of 43%, with 36% who did not trust him to see the country the current economic situation. Today, that figure has fallen to 31% who trust him but more than half (53%) who do not. Similarly, nearly two years ago in the autumn of 2010, 34% of the population trusted Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to see us through the current economic situation. Now, that figure has dropped by more than half to just 15%.

Finally, reflecting the scores above, the poll shows that just a quarter of people (24%) think that the coalition is good for Britain, while more than half (53%) think it is bad for Britain. In October 2010, a much larger percentage of 44% of the public thought the coalition was good for Britain and 34% thought it was bad for Britain, meaning positivity towards the coalition has dropped by twenty percentage points.


Ends.

Methodology: ComRes interviewed 2,060 adults online from 17th to 19th August 2012. Data were weighted to be demographically representative of all British adults. ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
ComRes interviewed 2,009 adults online from 13th to 15th October 2010. Data were weighted to be demographically representative of all British adults. ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
 

View Polls

Read More
Explore