How supporters divide on the Middle East

Reproduced above is a snippet from today’s YouGov poll in the Sunday Times which I have clipped because it shows the different approaches that supporters of the three main parties are taking towards the current conflict in the Middle East.

For when asked who should get the blame the overall result has 24% of British voters blaming Hamas with 18% saying Israel. The balance of the sample said “equally” or they “don’t know”.

But drilling down to how party supporters divide and you get a different picture. Those backing the Lib Dems and Labour put the blame on Israel more and the overall finding is only as it is because of the way Tory supporters go quite strongly against Hamas. Thus of those expressing an opinion 34% of the Tories blamed Hamas compared with with just 17% of the Lib Dems.

It’s interesting that Nick Clegg has been more forthright in his comments about Israel than the other two party leaders.

The question is whether this could have an effect on Britain’s attitude to the conflict because the overall finding points to Cameron government being returned with a big majority – possibly even a landslide.

The voting intention shares in the latest YouGov and ComRes polls were featured in the previous two threads. Both showed sharp moves to the Conservatives.