Voters weary of Partygate ahead of critical elections
it.” More than 2,000 adults took part in this week’s survey commissioned from OnePoll.com by the Express, ahead of Thursday’s critical elections.
It shows the Conservatives lagging slightly behind Labour in people’s voting intentions following a tumultuous few months politically: Sir Keir Starmer’s party was backed by 31 per cent, with 28 per cent choosing the Tories.
Partygate allegations do not appear to be responsible for the threepoint difference, despite the Labour chief’s attempts to highlight the issue.
A fortnight on from Scotland Yard’s decision to issue Boris Johnson with a fixed penalty notice for a nine-minute gathering to mark his 56th birthday ahead of a work meeting, the row was ranked last of a list of 11 priorities for voters.
Shadow cabinet minister Lisa Nandy is said to have told Sir Keir to stop focusing on Partygate – a claim denied by his spokesman.
Ms Nandy is believed to have warned him Labour risked looking “out of touch” and should instead tell voters how it would tackle the cost-of-living crisis.
Conservative MP Tom Hunt said he was not surprised by the findings on Partygate: “Over the last month I’ve knocked on probably over a thousand doors in Ipswich and when it does come up the sense I’m getting is that people are not performing gymnastics over how they vote based on it.
“Cost of living is a much more important issue to voters on the doorstep and Ukraine is normally up there as well and things like immigration. A lot of people when the issue reared its head took a bit of an interest but it has been relentlessly pushed by some sections of the media and I think people are quite weary about it now.”
Some 200 local authorities hold elections on Thursday. Many of the seats involved were last contested in 2017 and 2018, when the UK was still in the EU, the Prime Minister was Theresa May and Labour was led by Jeremy Corbyn.
It is the first chance for voters to deliver their verdicts on Mr Johnson and Sir Keir since the 2019 General Election. The Conservatives are braced to lose hundreds of council seats after a bruising few months but Labour has been downplaying its own expectations ahead of the ballot.
Polling has found that three quarters of the public were proud of the way the UK has responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while nine per cent disagreed with the reaction.
Half the country backs the 1.25 per cent increase in National Insurance to pay for social care as a good idea, while 35 per cent were opposed to it.
The study also found most people say they “self censor” to avoid giving offence; the 70 per cent figure rises to 80 per cent of 23 to 34-year-olds.
More than half think of those questioned believe
that day to day freedom of speech is under attack in the UK. The same proportion, 52 per cent, think that published freedom of speech, such as books and newspaper articles, is under siege. Thursday’s elections will also let people give their verdict on local issues. The OnePoll study found 44 per cent think councils offer poor value for money – but a matching 44 per cent said the opposite. People in London were happiest with the cost of their services while residents of East Anglia and the North-west of England were the least content. OnePoll analysed its survey results on matters