Political Poll for The Independent

Voting Intention and Political Attitudes for The Independent

Date Published: 28 Nov 2011

Categories: Economy | Politics | Public and communities | UK

Description

A clear majority of the public believes that George Osborne should slow down his spending cuts in order to increase economic growth, according to a ComRes poll for The Independent.

Asked whether the Government should slow the pace of the cuts so that it can try to boost growth, 69 per cent agree and 24 per cent disagree.  A majority (54 per cent) of Conservative supporters want slower cuts.

By a similar margin (69 to 23 per cent), people do not believe higher unemployment is a price worth paying in order to reduce the deficit in the public finances. However, ministers appear to have convinced many voters that the low growth rate of the British economy is mainly due to the crisis in eurozone countries.  Some 50 per cent agree with this statement and 39 per cent disagree.

The public is not convinced that Ed Miliband and Ed Balls would do a better job of sorting out Britain’s economic problems than David Cameron and George Osborne. Only 29 per cent believe the "two Eds" would do better, and 71 per cent either disagree or do not know.

Labour’s lead over the Conservatives has halved to two points since the ComRes survey for The Independent on Sunday / Sunday Mirror published on November 20. Labour is now on 39 per cent (no change), the Conservatives 37 per cent (up two points), the Liberal Democrats 10 per cent (down one point) and other parties 14 per cent (down one).

ComRes interviewed 1,001 GB adults by telephone between November 25-27, 2011.  Data were weighted to be demographically representative of all GB adults and by past vote recall