Is Labour losing the tax and spend argument?
Does the party need to refine its approach?
With policies on tax and spend dominating PMQs and almost the whole political debate at the moment there’s a new poll out from PoliticsHome that could cause Labour strategists to re-think their approach.
As can be seen in the chart the overall shares on who is “most honest” were CON 37: LD 28: LAB 16: NONE 28 But when this is broken down those polled describing themselves as non-aligned split: CON 33: LAB 6: LD 23: NONE 40
To my mind the poll reflects the differences in approach between Balls/Brown and the chancellor Alistair Darling. Being believed is going to be critical if they are to have a fighting chance.
Given that this is going to be the key issue in the coming election Labour needs to find a way of putting over its position in a manner that is believed. I think the party is badly let down by Ed Balls.
PoliticsHome interviewed 1,295 adults by email between 15 – 16 June 2009 and results are weighted by party ID to reflect the UK at large. Although PH is not yet a member of the British Polling council they have been very ready to share with me details of their methodology and other aspects of their operation.