Yes, it is his policies that voters in the North East prefer
SURVEY SHOWS BACKING FOR LABOUR MANIFESTO
VOTERS acorss the North East back key parts of Labour’s general election manifesto, an exclusive survey has revealed.
Increasing school spending, stopping hospital closures and pushing up the minimum wage to £10 an hour are all popular policies.
Voters also backed a number of Conservative policies – but Labour’s plans were the most popular.
The new survey has found that 42.9% of respondents in the North East agreed with Labour’s plans to boost school education budgets by £6bn a year. The same proportion backed Jeremy Corbyn’s plans for a freeze on the NHS “Sustainability and Transformation Plans”, which are designed to save £20bn a year and could mean hospitals close or merge.
And a further 42.4% agreed with Labour’s planned £10 an hour compulsory living wage, effectively an increase in the minimum
wage. But the survey also found that voters weren’t impressed by Labour’s plan to protect the pensions “triple lock”, which guarantees a significant increase in pensions even when inflation is low.
Just 28.9% of those asked backed this policy.
Our survey found the most popular Conservative election promise among North East voters was recruiting 10,000 more mental health staff.
That was supported by 42.2% of people across the region.
Caps on energy prices were backed by 34.3% in the North East, and Tory plans to cut immigration were backed by 31.7%.
Perhaps surprisingly, just 16.6% of those surveyed said they backed Tory plans to leave the EU single market – even though the region voted heavily for Brexit.
The most popular Liberal Democrat promise was to put more money into education, while for the Green party it was scrapping tuition fees.
The study, run in partnership with Google Surveys, was completed online by more than 8,000 people across the regions of England.
It follows opinion polls which found widespread support for Labour policies such as re-nationalising the railways and creating local energy firms.
But a ComRes survey for the Daily Mirror found, while many voters like Labour’s plans, 56% said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would be a disaster as Prime Minister.
Labour manifesto plans included taking the water and energy industries into public control – and the party said this will cut household bills by £220 a year.
The party said it could cut annual water bills by £100 and energy bills by £120, stopping dividends to shareholders and cutting the cost of interest payments on the companies’ debts because the government would be able to borrow more cheaply.
Labour said the water companies had paid dividends averaging £1.8bn over the past 10 years, while interest payments would be reduced by £500m a year under public ownership – an annual average saving of £2.3bn.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “Labour will rebalance our economy so that the many are no longer ripped off by the wealthy and powerful few.
“Our plans for public ownership and greater transparency will slash bills and drive investment in efficiency and renewables.”
But the party was hit by a new row after union boss Len McCluskey said he cannot see Labour winning the general election.
The Unite leader suggested winning 200 seats – nearly 30 fewer than in 2015 – would be a “successful” result for UK leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale rejected the claim, saying she defined success as “winning the election”.
She told BBC Radio Scotland: “I hope he is wrong – I want to see a Labour government across the whole of the United Kingdom, that’s what I’m spending every waking moment of my day campaigning for.”
She added: “I think he’s wrong, I hope he’s wrong.”
Labour will rebalance our economy so that the many are no longer ripped off by the wealthy and powerful few. - Jeremy Corbyn