On the face of it this ComRes “issues that will most impact on voting” polling doesn’t look good for the Tories
ComRes ITV poll on the best party for the issues voters say will most influence their choice pic.twitter.com/tIeLwipejO
— Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) December 17, 2014
But how strong is LAB on NHS and the cost of living?
What is interesting about this ComRes survey for ITV is that it seeks to link the best party on each issue to what issues are likely to be decisive in influencing voter choice.
Rather than just have “the economy” where the Tories are strong this is broken down into three headings where one, the cost of living is good for Labour. The latter is personal while the deficit and promoting growth are more general putting it into a national context and less personal.
The Labour hope is that focusing on the individual will see them home. Maybe. Maybe not.
I’m not convinced that either of the main party economic spokesmen, Osborne and Ball, have what it takes in terms of communication skills. They both seem more concerned with taking chunks out of each other than getting messages over that resonate.
Immigration might be the top voter choice but the party in the lead here is not going to be a serious contender in more than a handful of seats and you can see both the main players trying to push the overall campaign onto territory where they feel they are strong.
UKIP is vulnerable on the NHS because of mixed messaging and things that the party has said in the past. Attempts to make this a key plank in Rochester never really got off the ground.
The impact of UKIP has been to take away from the Tories what used to be one of their greatest strengths. It is far harder to play immigration as an issue when you gave been in power for five years and the numbers aren’t as good as was promised during the last campaign.