A big thanks to those who took part in our first minipoll of the year that we ran on the day the General Election was announced. Over 2,500 of you responded within 24 hours which was an excellent response and enabled us to feature results in the paper with a very quick turnaround - so thank you! We hope you spotted the references to Urban Life in the paper!
Still very much Labour! Since our last measure when we asked you in our first main survey who will win, the belief it will be Labour has gone down by a mere 2 percentage points (78% to 76%).
Who are you going to vote for?
(Base: All eligible to vote and who didn't want to keep it secret from us!)
| Liberal Democrats | 26% |
| Labour | 25% |
| Conservative | 21% |
| Green Party | 4% |
| UKIP | 1% |
| Other | 3% |
| Don't know | 12% |
| Don't plan to vote | 8% |
So as far as the Metro reader vote goes, there is a lot to play for with the 12% of you who have yet to make up your minds.
Swinging Votes13% of you have changed your minds in the last 6 weeks about who you're going to vote for. Of those of you who have switched, you were predominantly previous Labour voters (42%). Although some of you have also moved away from the other parties - again of those who have changed minds 16% moved away from Liberal Democrats, 13% from the Conservatives and 18% have changed from being previously undecided.
Who have those previous Labour voters now decided to vote for?
Lib Dem: 35%
Cons: 23%
Green: 3%
DK: 35%
Don't plan to vote: 3%
NB: Obviously Labour have also made gains from other areas where switching is occurring, hence no huge change in the overall pattern of predicted voting.
Budget
3 in 10 of you think you'll be worse off due to Gordon Brown's budget. 58% remain much the same. A mere 5% say they think they will be slightly better off. 17% said the budget has made you more likely to vote for another party but 72% say it will make no difference.
Conservative Immigration issue
60% of you think the issue of controlling immigration is important. This of course varies quite a bit by which party to plan to vote for:
Conservative: 86%
Labour: 52%
Lib Dem: 46%
This policy is favourable to about 10% of both other two main opposition parties. 12% of those planning to vote Labour think the Conservative's focus on tighter immigration controls makes them more likely to vote Conservative, as do 11% of those planning to vote Lib Dem. In turn though, 3% of those of you planning to vote Conservative think the focus on this issue makes you more likely to vote for someone else.
Effect on Labour?
Looking only at those who previously said they were going to vote Labour and have now changed, a third of you (32%) agreed that this issue made you more likely to vote Conservative.
Labour highlighting the issue of transparency (i.e. no hidden agendas)
Overall three quarters think this is an important issue. However almost 6 in 10 of you told us that this exposure has made no difference to the way you're going to vote.
Potential damage to Conservatives?
9% of those planning to vote Conservative say this has made them more likely to vote for another party.
...so it's all just swings and roundabouts really!
Are the Liberal Democrats the only real alternative to Labour?52% think this is a realistic claim. 41% think it's unrealistic. 7% don't know
