How party members rate the performances of leading Lib Dems

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Over 550 party members responded, and we’ve published the full results here.

Today we focus on the performances of the leading lights of the Liberal Democrats — those of our MPs in the cabinet, those occupying ministerial positions, and other leading Lib Dems. My LibDemVoice colleague Mark Pack has already provided the highlights of our latest survey, but I know there are completists among you who cannot rest easy until the full figures are revealed…

LDV asked: How would you rate the performances of the following leading Liberal Democrats and government ministers?

Full results are published below, but here’s three key lists for those who want to cut to the chase… (with September 2011 ratings in brackets)

Top 5 Lib Dem performers in the Government:

Vince Cable +63% (+72%)
Lynne Featherstone +54% (+46%)
Steve Webb +51% (+47%)
Chris Huhne +42% (+53%)
Norman Baker +39% (+39%)

Bottom 5 Lib Dem performers in the Government:

Michael Moore +18% (+19%)
Andrew Stunell +16% (+10%)
Nick Harvey +15% (+18%)
Danny Alexander +14% (+16%)
Paul Burstow +14% (+11%)

As I note each time: “the list stands as a reminder to all our Lib Dem ministers of the value of communicating effectively with party members about the work they’re undertaking on behalf of the party, even if it isn’t making the front pages.” For the record, all Lib Dem government ministers are still showing net positive satisfaction ratings, and have done since the beginning of the Coalition. It’s also noticable that, in the cases of both Andrew Stunell and Paul Burstow, personal satisfaction ratings are higher than in September.

And here’s how other leading Lib Dems score:

Tim Farron +61% (+70%)
Simon Hughes +46% (+54%)
Kirsty Williams +45% (+34%)
Caroline Pidgeon +33% (+36%)
Brian Paddick +32% (+48%)
Willie Rennie +30% (+31%)
Chris Fox +17% (+21%)
Fiona Hall +15% (+14%)

As promised, here are the results in full …

Lib Dem cabinet ministers and government ministers:

Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
Very satisfied 26%
Quite satisfied 49%
Quite dissatisfied 10%
Very dissatisfied 2%
Don’t know / No opinion 13%
Net satisfaction +63% (+72%)

Lynne Featherstone, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Equalities) for the Home Office
Very satisfied 23%
Quite satisfied 40%
Quite dissatisfied 6%
Very dissatisfied 3%
Don’t know / No opinion 27%
Net satisfaction +54% (+46%)

Steve Webb, Minister of State to the Department for Work and Pensions
Very satisfied 24%
Quite satisfied 35%
Quite dissatisfied 6%
Very dissatisfied 2%
Don’t know / No opinion 34%
Net satisfaction +51% (+47%)

Chris Huhne, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
Very satisfied 19%
Quite satisfied 46%
Quite dissatisfied 18%
Very dissatisfied 5%
Don’t know / No opinion 12%
Net satisfaction +42% (+53%)

Norman Baker, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department of Transport
Very satisfied 12%
Quite satisfied 37%
Quite dissatisfied 7%
Very dissatisfied 3%
Don’t know / No opinion 40%
Net satisfaction +39% (+39%)

Edward Davey, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Very satisfied 12%
Quite satisfied 35%
Quite dissatisfied 6%
Very dissatisfied 2%
Don’t know / No opinion 46%
Net satisfaction +39% (+27%)

Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister
Very satisfied 21%
Quite satisfied 43%
Quite dissatisfied 18%
Very dissatisfied 11%
Don’t know / No opinion 8%
Net satisfaction +35% (+40%)

The Rt Hon. Lord McNally, Minister of State for the Ministry of Justice
Very satisfied 8%
Quite satisfied 28%
Quite dissatisfied 5%
Very dissatisfied 1%
Don’t know / No opinion 58%
Net satisfaction +30% (+35%)

Sarah Teather, Minister of State for the Department for Education
Very satisfied 13%
Quite satisfied 34%
Quite dissatisfied 13%
Very dissatisfied 7%
Don’t know / No opinion 34%
Net satisfaction +27% (+31%)

Alistair Carmichael, Deputy Chief Whip to the House of Commons
Very satisfied 9%
Quite satisfied 24%
Quite dissatisfied 5%
Very dissatisfied 2%
Don’t know / No opinion 60%
Net satisfaction +26% (+20%)

David Heath, Parliamentary Secretary (Deputy Leader) to the Office of the Leader of the Commons
Very satisfied 7%
Quite satisfied 20%
Quite dissatisfied 2%
Very dissatisfied 2%
Don’t know / No opinion 70%
Net satisfaction +23% (+21%)

Jeremy Browne, Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Very satisfied 7%
Quite satisfied 26%
Quite dissatisfied 9%
Very dissatisfied 4%
Don’t know / No opinion 53%
Net satisfaction +20% (+14%)

Michael Moore, Secretary of State for Scotland
Very satisfied 5%
Quite satisfied 23%
Quite dissatisfied 7%
Very dissatisfied 3%
Don’t know / No opinion 62%
Net satisfaction +18% (+19%)

Andrew Stunell, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State to the Department for Communities and Local Government
Very satisfied 5%
Quite satisfied 28%
Quite dissatisfied 12%
Very dissatisfied 5%
Don’t know / No opinion 51%
Net satisfaction +16% (+10%)

Nick Harvey, Minister of State (Minister for the Armed Forces) for the Ministry of Defence
Very satisfied 4%
Quite satisfied 21%
Quite dissatisfied 7%
Very dissatisfied 3%
Don’t know / No opinion 65%
Net satisfaction +15% (+18%)

Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Very satisfied 18%
Quite satisfied 34%
Quite dissatisfied 21%
Very dissatisfied 17%
Don’t know / No opinion 10%
Net satisfaction +14% (+16%)

Paul Burstow, Minister of State for the Department of Health
Very satisfied 8%
Quite satisfied 28%
Quite dissatisfied 13%
Very dissatisfied 9%
Don’t know / No opinion 43%
Net satisfaction +14% (+11%)

Other leading Lib Dems:

Tim Farron, Party President
Very satisfied 36%
Quite satisfied 36%
Quite dissatisfied 8%
Very dissatisfied 3%
Don’t know / No opinion 16%
Net satisfaction +61% (+70%)

Simon Hughes, Deputy Leader of the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons
Very satisfied 19%
Quite satisfied 39%
Quite dissatisfied 9%
Very dissatisfied 3%
Don’t know / No opinion 29%
Net satisfaction +46% (+54%)

Kirsty Williams, Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats
Very satisfied 18%
Quite satisfied 30%
Quite dissatisfied 2%
Very dissatisfied 1%
Don’t know / No opinion 49%
Net satisfaction +45% (+34%)

Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the London Assembly
Very satisfied 16%
Quite satisfied 21%
Quite dissatisfied 2%
Very dissatisfied 2%
Don’t know / No opinion 59%
Net satisfaction +33% (+36%)

Brian Paddick, Lib Dem candidate for Mayor of London
Very satisfied 13%
Quite satisfied 31%
Quite dissatisfied 9%
Very dissatisfied 3%
Don’t know / No opinion 44%
Net satisfaction +32% (+48%)

Willie Rennie, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats
Very satisfied 11%
Quite satisfied 23%
Quite dissatisfied 3%
Very dissatisfied 1%
Don’t know / No opinion 62%
Net satisfaction +30% (+31%)

Chris Fox, Lib Dem chief executive
Very satisfied 7%
Quite satisfied 21%
Quite dissatisfied 7%
Very dissatisfied 4%
Don’t know / No opinion 61%
Net satisfaction +17% (+21%)

Fiona Hall, Leader of the UK Lib Dem MEPs
Very satisfied 6%
Quite satisfied 17%
Quite dissatisfied 6%
Very dissatisfied 2%
Don’t know / No opinion 69%
Net satisfaction +15% (+14%)

Over 1,200 Lib Dem paid-up party members are registered with LibDemVoice.org. Some 564 responded to the latest survey, which was conducted between 9th and 13th December.

Please note: we make no claims that the survey is fully representative of the Lib Dem membership as a whole. However, LibDemVoice.org’s surveys are the largest independent samples of the views of Lib Dem members across the country, and have in the past accurately predicted the winners of the contest for Party President, and the result of the conference decision to approve the Coalition agreement.

The full archive of our members’ surveys can be viewed at www.libdemvoice.org/category/ldv-members-poll

* Stephen was Editor (and Co-Editor) of Liberal Democrat Voice from 2007 to 2015, and writes at The Collected Stephen Tall.

5 Comments

Jock Gallagher 7th Jan '12 - 5:39pm

Am I alone in being unutterably disappointed by the results of your polling,.which suggests that more than half of Liberal Democrats have no opinion of eight of our leading parliamentarians. In another six cases, somewhere between 24% and 49% have no opinion of our front-line MPs. What’s happened to us? In my many years in the party, I have always been enthused by the often-magnificent performances of our MPs. How have we allowed this yawning gap between the grass-roots and the leadership to develop? Who’s to blame? Does anyone care? Is anyone doing anything about it?
Stephen Tall says: “The list stands as a reminder to all our Lib Dem ministers of the value of communicating effectively with party members about the work they’re undertaking on behalf of the party, even if it isn’t making the front pages.” Can we persuade them to take the hint and start talking to us?

Jock Gallagher
Andrew Suffield 7th Jan '12 - 8:49pm

Jock, can you remember offhand what each one of those people has done in the past three months?

The simple fact is that almost nobody is that familiar with what’s going on in the government. People will know about, and be enthusiastic about, a relatively small portion of the MPs. The group of people that has no opinion will be different for each one of them – each MP will have a relatively small group that is familiar with their work, and a rather larger group that has no idea what they’ve been doing.

Given the almost silly extent to which the left- and right-wing media goes to avoid mentioning LD MPs, it’s not all that surprising that there is no general awareness of what they do.
jeanette aron 7th Jan '12 - 9:43pm

I also find it strange that at grass roots level we communicate with each other & our residents very effectively but once our colleagues are elected as an MP it seems to stop. I receive the odd letter by email that is sent to many as a brief update but once an MP it seems as though they are on another planet and totally unapproachable which is a shame because that is what I thought the Lib Dems were all about. Can we have that aspect back in the leaders of our party please?
Nigel Quinton 8th Jan '12 - 7:01pm

The way the “net” score is calculated tends to favour the better known of our minsters. If the “Don’t Know/No opinion” votes are simply discarded then David Heath comes out top rather than Vince (he slips to 4th), and Nick Clegg drops from a vaguely respectable 7th to a rather more damning 14th, with only Andrew Stunnell, Paul Burstow and Danny Alexander below him. I suspect that is a more representative way of measuring their performance.

The full list of Ministers:

David Heath 83%
Steve Webb 77%
Lynne Featherstone 74%
Vince Cable 72%
Ed Davey 72%
Tom McNally 71%
Norman Baker 65%
Alistair Carmichael 65%
Chris Huhne 48%
Michael Moore 47%
Nick Harvey 43%
Jeremy Browne 43%
Sarah Teather 41%
Nick Clegg 38%
Andrew Stunnell 33%
Paul Burstow 25%
Danny Alexander 16%
Mark Pack 8th Jan '12 - 7:36pm

It’s an interesting table Nigel and thanks for posting it. One issue is how you view “don’t knows” – are they a neutral verdict (which is often how don’t knows are thought of) or are they negative (which I tend towards in this case – because a Liberal Democrat minister has more than enough opportunity to raise their profile with party members if they wish to, and so having too many don’t knows indicates a failure of communication)?