Sunday Mirror Independent Political Poll August 2016

Political survey, including the ComRes Favourability Index, on behalf on The Sunday Mirror and The Independent.

Favourability Index

Theresa May has overtaken Boris Johnson as Britain’s most popular politician. 42% of the public say that they are favourable towards the new Prime Minister – up 13 points from 29% last November when she was Home Secretary. With just 24% of the public unfavourable towards her, she is currently the only leading domestic politician with a positive net rating. The former Mayor of London had always previously topped the table of the ComRes Favourability Index since it started in 2014, but has fallen four points to 36% favourable since February, and has now slipped into a marginally negative overall net rating (-1).
In the battle for the Labour leadership, Corbyn divides opinion with higher proportions of Britons both favourable and unfavourable towards him than Owen Smith (possibly due to Smith’s low name recognition). While Smith has better overall net favourability (-14, vs -28 for Corbyn), he also has a negative net rating amongst 2015 Labour voters (-8), whereas Corbyn has a positive one (+13).
Amongst the general public, Jeremy Corbyn is as unpopular as Nigel Farage (-28 vs -27).

Labour leadership:

The public think that Owen Smith (37%) would make a better leader of the Labour Party than Jeremy Corbyn (23%). However, amongst 2015 Labour voters, the two are closely matched with Jeremy Corbyn on 37% and Smith on 32%.
One in eight British adults (12%), and one in five (19%) current Labour voters, think that MI5 are behind some of the online criticism of Jeremy Corbyn.

Grammar schools:

Half of British adults think grammar schools are good for social mobility (51%), while around a quarter (27%) think they are bad for it as they help those who are privileged already.
Just less than half (47%) think that the Government should allow new grammar schools that select pupils through the 11 plus. A quarter of adults (25%) think the ban on new grammars should be kept in place.

Constitutional reform:

More people think that the House of Lords plays an important role scrutinising laws passed by government (45%) than think it should be abolished (32%).
However, the move towards direct democracy in recent years appears popular, with 52% saying the public should be asked in referendums to decide on major decisions about Britain’s future, compared to 35% who say it is the job of politicians to make decisions about the future of the country.

US Election:

Three quarters of British adults (76%) are unfavourable towards Donald Trump, leaving him with a net rating of -69. Hillary Clinton has a positive net favourability rating of +6, with 34% favourable towards her.
In line with this, Hillary Clinton is Britain’s preferred candidate for US President, with 70% of the public preferring her, against 12% who would prefer Donald Trump.

Date Published: 13th August 2016

Categories: GB | Politics | Public and communities | Social

Client: Independent / Sunday Mirror

Methodology

Methodology Note: ComRes interviewed 2,017 GB adults online between the 10th and 12th August 2016. Data were weighted to be demographically representative of all GB adults. Data were also weighted by past vote recall. ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.