Vince Cable is the public’s preferred choice for Chancellor, according to a poll by PoliticsHome.
Of the general public polled, 31% chose Vince Cable above George Osborne, Alistair Darling, Ken Clarke, Peter Mandelson and Ed Balls.
The poll also found that 79% of Liberal Democrat voters supported Vince Cable for the job, while Osborne and Darling received much lower levels of support from their own parties’ voters. (Find the full results at PoliticsHome.)
As Iain pointed out yesterday, Vince’s recent recce to the Treasury does raise questions about how he could land the job.
Of course, national polls like this don’t determine who gets to be Chancellor, but it’s a reminder that the public are aware of the Liberal Democrats’ particular strength in this area. It’s up to local campaigners to translate this into support at the poll that really counts – the General Election.
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6 Comments
The funny part of this poll was that the most ruthelessly ambitious of the lot, young Ed Balls, scored a magnificant 2%
@ Undecided
Hahahahaha well spotted.
Thing is, a coalition situation with Cable in any post is difficult – Chancellor and he’s more senior than Clegg, who presumably wouldn’t get to Also take one of the big three. Meanwhile, Cable to a more junior economic post like Chief Sec or BERR would be ridiculous when the more senior position is taken by Osborne. The only solution to the conundrum is to put Clarke in as Chancellor, Cable at either Chief Sec or BERR (i’d go with BERR) and Clegg’s requested position at the Home Office, or maybe education. I still think that would look odd, and i also don’t know if i see the Tories agreeing to it, given how much a) giving the Lib Dems the Home Office would enrage the party faithful, and b) Michael Gove would be seriously pissed off not to get the education brief he probably feels rightly entitled to, given how much solid work he’s put in for it, and how credible he’s made the Tories look on education (though naturally i don’t think he’s wholly sound on it).
Ultimately, i don’t see the Lib Dems doing a deal with the Tories of that nature.
Have Clegg as either Leader of the Commons or Deputy PM, or leave him outside the cabinet so he’s not bound by collective responsibility and can say “we don’t agree with that but we’ll go along with it to keep the Government together”
Leader of the Commons is an important job to have as it gives you a lot of power to change the way things are done (which is as important as policy agreements)
@Leo, all of what you post is predicated on a huge assumption and as the only ballot that counts has yet to be cast we must view your output as specious waffle to be candidly blunt.
btw Gove proffering failed Scandinavian “solutions” to the education situation has done nothing to rehabilitate the tories wrt education. The contents of their policy portfolio seems to quickly unravel when given even the slightest scrutiny. Big Society is quite frankly B.S.
If there is a balanced parliament then it should create a short lived national government and quickly reform the voting system to resemble something that looks like a selection procedure fit for a modern pluralist democracy. Then the system will actually allow the population to decide the nature of our government rather than have a minority elected dictatorship as we have had for the last thirty plus years.
Well you’re entitled to think that, Mr Wall, but i was merely observing that a coalition scenario throws up a whole load of problems for the party.