PoliticsHome | The numbers are in: Labour seen as least progressive mainstream party

Friday 14th August 2009 | 16:10

The numbers are in: Labour seen as least progressive mainstream party

A new PoliticsHome poll lays bare the extent to which Labour have ceded the 'progressive' mantle to the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives

Labour is seen as the least progressive of all the mainstream political parties, according to the results of a new PoliticsHome poll.

The result follows last week's dispute between Lord Mandelson and George Osborne over whether Labour or the Conservatives have a more legitimate claim to be 'progressive'.

Voters see the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and Greens as more progressive than Labour. However, over a third of voters (35%, the largest section of those interviewed) do not believe that any political party is progressive.

In joint second place were the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, whom 22% of people saw as progressive.

17% of people saw the Green party as progressive.

In fifth place were Labour, seen as progressive by just 12% of voters.

22% viewed another party as the most progressive.

'Progressive' = 'reforming, modernising'

The poll results also suggest that ‘progressive’ does not have strong liberal or left wing associations for a majority of voters.

12% understand ‘progressive’ to mean ‘liberal’, and 7% to mean ‘left wing’.

Instead, progressive is most commonly understood to mean ‘reforming’ (63%), ‘modernising’ (61%), and ‘enterprising’ (45%).

This understanding was true of voters across the political spectrum.

PoliticsHome interviewed 1192 adults by email between 12-13 August 2009. Results are weighted by party ID to reflect the UK at large.

Leave a comment...

John Ward

14:40 |
16 Aug 2009
Recommended
2

It would be helpful to have the exact figures as well as the percentages in the first (main) table, so that we can see why the Conservatives were placed below the LibDems rather than (on the only figures presented) in joint second position.

On my own 'blog, when looking at this poll result, I have listed those two parties on the same line, to avoid the possibility of misleading my readers. If the detail were to be made available, I can of course amend this accordingly.

Freddie Sayers

20:15 |
16 Aug 2009
0

Hi John,

Yes - as in the chart, the Tories and Lib Dems are equal on 22%.

Freddie

John Ward

15:18 |
17 Aug 2009
0

Thanks, Freddie. That is as far as I had gone, not having the exact numbers. It isn't a major thing; but if we had the exact number of people for each party I could see if one of those two was perhaps slightly higher than the other.

If someone from PHI admin responds it would be helpful, otherwise I'll leave my own blog post as it is. That's about the best a stickler for accuracy like me can do :-)

Freddie Sayers

17:50 |
17 Aug 2009
0

Hi John,

The Lib Dems came out slightly ahead on 22.2% to the Tories 21.8% but as this was within the margin of error we never publish results to any decimal places.

The graph is supposed to show that they came joint 2nd on 22%, which is the correct result.

Freddie

theChristophe

17:27 |
18 Aug 2009
0

Would be good to have the breakdown by party for the top graph, i.e. what percentage of Labour members didnt choose Labour etc.

Barbara Stevens

18:08 |
04 Sep 2009
0

What about the popular fringe parties that seem to be getting more votes eg. BNP who gained nearly one million votes at the EU elections. It appears fashionable to ignore this party yet they are now part of the political landscape and should be afforded the same public interest and scrutiny, as is the Ukip party, and when one reads both manifesto's there's not much difference in the reading. Yet one is defiled more than the other, from old talk about what happened 70 years ago, so boring, time and politics have moved on, and the indigenous populace of this country find these two parties listen to what they want and say. Ignore them at your peril.

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The numbers are in: Labour seen as least progressive mainstream party