It is now a month since the last Euro poll for an election that’s less than 11 weeks off
Less than 11 weeks to the Euro Elections & the polling famine continues
http://t.co/1zRdXoPOYi pic.twitter.com/s9gVdqwKxS
— Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) March 9, 2014
Why are these not being commissioned?
Above is the latest European Elections polling table from Anthony Wells’s UK Polling report showing just three surveys this year the last one being the ICM for the Guardian a month ago.
Compare that with the number of polls that we get for the next time UK general election which takes place in 14 months.
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The outcome at the end of May could be crucial for the four main parties and very poor results could conceivably put each of their leaders at risk.
Yet for whatever reason EU election polling is not being commissioned.
Now I know that the very poor turnouts, last time it was 35%, present a big challenge to the pollsters but it is extraordinary that we are not even get a whiff of how voters are seeing this and whether, in particular, UKIP is making progress.
Compare, as well, the number of Scottish IndyRef surveys for an election that takes place in September.
This is not the fault of the pollsters but the media organisations that commission them. There seems to be a reluctance to add EU election questions to the regular Westminster VI surveys.
I just wonder whether the lack of polling is part of a desire not to fuel the UKIP surge.