Sun shining less brightly |

Wednesday 30th September 2009 | 15:07

Sun shining less brightly

The Sun's endorsement is seen as being of less importance than it has been in past elections, in the view of a majority of insiders. The Observer is expected to back Labour, The Independent the Liberal Democrats, and the FT no party.

Almost exactly a year ago, the PoliticsHome Phi100 panel predicted that The Sun would endorse the Conservatives at the next election - and today that was proved correct.

But the paper’s decision of who to endorse is less important than it was in the past, according to the PoliticsHome Phi100 panel of MPs, political experts and insiders.

Fifty six per cent of the panel think that the editorial backing of the Sun now makes less difference than it used to.

Thirty seven per cent say that its level of influence is about the same, and just four per cent say that it now has more influence.

Still important

A right-leaning thought leader said: ‘new media has weakened the influence of the Sun but it is still very important.’

A non-aligned panellist said: ‘It indicates no more than that The Sun is now convinced who will win the next election.’

A right-leaning strategist argued that the influence of the Sun ‘was always exaggerated anyway.’

A Lib Dem panellist argued that the endorsement was 'bad for morale internally'.

Observer for Labour, Indy for Lib Dems,
FT for nobody

The panel were also asked which party they predicted that other newspapers would back (presuming that all the newspapers were still around at the time of the next election). The FT, whose leader was more generous towards Brown, was not expected to back any party by half the panel.

Seventeen per cent expected the paper to back Labour, and twenty per cent the Conservatives.

A narrow majority of the Phi100 expected the Observer to back Labour, and a similar proportion expected the Independent to back the Lib Dems.

A right-leaning media panellist expected both papers to urge their readers to "vote for the most progressive candidate".

A non-aligned panellist expected the Observer to back Labour, saying ‘someone has to!’

A media panellist expected the Independent’s stance to boil down to a battle of ‘Bruce Anderson vs Steve Richards’.

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