ORB/Indy poll finds that 76% think that LAB less electable now than it was on May 7th
The front page of tomorrow's I pic.twitter.com/2fkFD2SRqT
— Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) July 27, 2015
But does this poll really tell us anything?
An ORB poll for the Independent carried out over the weekend finds that 76% of those who had a view believe that LAB is less electable now than it was at the general election.
We’ve not yet seen the dataset or the precise question wording but the overall picture looks gloomy for the red team and sets out very clearly the challenge facing the new leader when he/she takes over the party on September 12th.
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Aren’t we just seeing what happens to most political parties less than three months after a devastating election defeat?
I can’t recall a similar post general election poll on a party that has lost power and is going through the process of finding a new leader.
How, for instance would the Tories have performed in a similar survey eleven weeks after their 1997 election defeat by Tony Blair’s new Labour or in the aftermath of GE2001 when IDS, Ken Clarke and Michael Portillo were slugging it out. In the latter the blue team ended up with the leader who was the most unelectable – something that was blindingly obvious to many inside and outside the party
Inevitably leadership contests highlight divisions because that’s their very nature and we know that voters are more reluctant to give their support to split parties.
The big question is how LAB will be seen when the new leader is in place.