PoliticsHome (yes, I’m still reading it, despite everything) published an interesting poll today, taking the temperature of public opinion on MPs’ expenses, post-Legg:
… [the poll] suggests that more than half the population believes the recommendations were ‘not tough enough’, 57% have ‘no sympathy whatsoever’ and 60% are as interested in the story as they ever were. The LIberal Democrat MPs are perceived to have behaved the best.
The survey is split down into categories of voter identification – Lib Dem, Labour, Tory, none – and generally there is little marked difference in the attitudes of party supporters:
>> Lib Dems are a little more inclined than others to believe Sir Thomas Legg’s recommendations were unfair (35% said it was: but this still left a big majority, 64%, saying he got it right or was too lenient).
>> Almost half (48%) Lib Dem supporters felt no sympathy whatsoever for those MPs having to pay back expenses that had initially been cleared (though one-third (33%) did have some sympathy).
>> And the vast majority of voters, no matter which party they support, are still interested in the MPs’ expenses story, though Labour voters were most likely to say they’d had their fill of it.
But the poll finding that stood out was this one – asked which party’s MPs it was felt had behaved the worst in the expenses scandal, not a single voter of the 1,154 who were polled answered that it was the Lib Dems. That’s right, zero (0) per cent of all voters felt the Lib Dems were most at fault. Maybe it’s not so suprising; but, still, I was surprised.
Overall, the public felt Labour had behaved worse (36%) than the Tories (21%), with 36% answering no party in particular. Unsurprisingly, the breakdown by party allegiance is more tribal, with just 1% of Tory supporters believing their party behaved worst, against 8% of Labour voters. Lib Dem voters were marginally more likely to believe the Tories were the principal villain of the scandal.
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11 Comments
And that’s despite the best efforts of The Telegraph to draw the Lib Dems into the scandal.
So what does this say about the Lib Dems’ apparent inability to profit in the opinion polls from the scandal, given they’re at or around the same 20-ish% mark they’ve always been at?
Does it suggest that people don’t actually care about the expenses issue, or at least that it’s far enough down their list that it doesn’t affect their voting intentions?
Or maybe my premise is wrong and the party has in fact profited from it, but those gains have been evenly matched by unrelated losses elsewhere and so have been rendered invisible?
That’s because you sometimes get 0% media coverage – rightly so – prats – you’re ignored by the media not 100% innocent
If the SNP & Plaid had been included in the survey,they would be the best as they have even fewer MP’s than the Lib Dems.
On the subject of expenses what’s the latest news on Lord Rennard’s £41,000 second home claim,is the taxpayer going to get this money reimbursed,was the alledged claim in the NOW article right or wrong?
Why is it we hear nothing from Clegg about this,this is a huge sum of money,either the NOW allegations are right or wrong and the public should be informed accordingly.
“what’s the latest news on Lord Rennard’s £41,000 second home claim,is the taxpayer going to get this money reimbursed”
Have some sense! He’s not going to reimburse the taxpayer unless he’s forced to do so, and you know that hasn’t happened.
Oh god the creatures of the night are out – chastened by the Bedford Mayoral result no doubt (not).
It’s facsinating that no Tory attack dog on here has mentioned David Wilshire and his £100,000 ‘mistressoscam’ project that allowed him to take huge sums of taxpayer’s money to pay for his ‘constituency’ house in Somerset and his second ‘Westminster’ home in his actual constituency a 25 minute commute into Waterloo.
Of course George Osbourne’s £150,000 ‘fliptastic’ capital gain isn’t mentioned either – so come on Mr Zimmer tell us which disgraced Tory MP you’re in the ”frame’ for.
All credit to Chris Huhne for his modest second home claim,however,if you already own 7 homes how many more do you need?
I would also like to compliment him on his impecable dress code, thoses creases on his trousers are always second to none,does he have a trouser press in each of his 7 houses?
Maybe John Zims would like to inform us what course of action David Cameron is planning on the house “flipping activities” of Messrs Osborne, Gove and Lansley.
And what clarification will be given over the tax paying status of Tory party funder Lord Ashcroft? And why the Conservatives are so utterly dependent on foreign plutocrats to fund their party operations?
Questions, questions…….
BTW, in response to John Zims’ point about the number of Lib Dem MPs, zero out of any number caught flipping equals 0%. Just thought I’d help you with the maths there, John.
Make-up,rocking horses,expensive mirrors and trouser presses come to mind.
‘And what clarification will be given over the tax paying status of Tory party funder Lord Ashcroft? ‘
Will the victims of the jailed Lib Dem donor get their £2 million returned?
Ignore Jo, she’s just upset we won Taunton Lyngford, with over 53% of the vote. Jo had predicted we’d lose, but sadly her choice – the Labour candidate came a very poor third – minus12% on last time. The Red-Greens are making innuendo about Clegg, whilst ignoring the tens of thousands grabbed by the ‘flippers’. It’s the environmental equivalent of complaining about your neighbour not recycling a bottle whilst ignoring the fact they’re building an airport on an AONB over the road. Why are the Red-Greens so bitter and twisted? They can’t all have been in Danny’s kindergarten.
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