Another Coalition? 1-in-5 of the public likes the idea, but is divided between Lib-Lab and Lib-Con pact
by Stephen Tall on February 21, 2014
Nick Clegg sparked a flurry of Coalition speculation this week, with his (relatively) warm words towards Labour on a BBC Radio 4 documentary this week. Everyone’s had their say – but what does the public think? YouGov has polled them to ask…
The first question asked which option folk would like to see after the next general election…
So a Labour majority government is the preference of most (31%), narrowly ahead of a Tory majority government (29%). A coalition government involving the Lib Dems would be favoured by 19% – a Lib-Lab pact (10%) noses a Lib-Con pact (9%).
But what if majority government isn’t on the table – what then…?
The British public is pretty evenly split, with a Lib-Lab coalition (43%) just preferred to a Lib-Con coalition (38%).
And that, of course, is the age-old problem for the Lib Dems when contemplating any coalition: though the idea of the party being in government continues to attract a decent slice of the population, the moment we pick Labour ahead of the Tories or the Tories ahead of Labour that slice is sliced again.
* Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, and editor of the 2013 publication, The Coalition and Beyond: Liberal Reforms for the Decade Ahead. He is also a Research Associate for the liberal think-tank CentreForum and writes at his own site, The Collected Stephen Tall.