The coalition starts to lose ground in the “cuts blame game”?
| Which is most to blame for the cuts? (YouGov) | CON-LD coalition | Last Labour government | Both of them | Neither |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25/01/11 | 26 | 40 | 24 | 5 |
| 10/01/11 | 22 | 40 | 25 | 8 |
| 11/12/10 | 23 | 41 | 24 | 7 |
| 15/11/10 | 22 | 43 | 23 | 7 |
| 07/10/10 | 17 | 47 | 20 | 10 |
| 20/09/10 | 21 | 44 | 22 | 7 |
| 06/09/10 | 22 | 45 | 20 | 6 |
| 31/08/10 | 23 | 45 | 20 | 6 |
| 16/08/10 | 22 | 45 | 21 | 6 |
| 02/08/10 | 22 | 45 | 20 | 6 |
| 19/07/10 | 21 | 48 | 19 | 7 |
| 05/07/10 | 21 | 44 | 21 | 8 |
| 23/06/10 | 18 | 49 | 18 | 9 |
Could this be put down to Ed Balls?
One of the regular polls that I watch carefully is the fortnightly YouGov “Who’s to blame for the cuts?” series. This is one of those non-voting intention sets of numbers that I believe could be as good, or even better guide, to the general election outcome than the standard VI headline figures.
As can be seen the latest figures show quite an increase, from 22% to 26%, in those blaming the coalition. This is the highest level its been at and the gap is only 14 points.
These numbers are politically important because given the pain that is about to be inflicted on voters the more that “the last lot” can be blamed the better it is for the current government parties.
I reproduce the series from last June in order to put the latest figures in context.
The polling for the latest numbers took place on Monday evening and on Tuesday.