The latest Ipsos MORI finding should worry all politicians
Our #issuesindex has been running since 1974 – we rarely add new items unless there’s a clear change – this month in the top ten for the first time – lack of faith in government/politicians…(spontaneously mentioned by respondents). Data out tomorrow
— Ben Page (@benatipsos) August 29, 2018
We also have a brand new entrant for the top ten – 12% say "lack of faith in govt/politics" is a big problem. This is our first new code since 2014 and has been slowly rising since its introduction after the Brexit referendum pic.twitter.com/gzPwaJdqZ7
— Michael Clemence (@mwclemence) August 30, 2018
The increasing lack of faith in politicians & governments needs to be reversed if politicians want to be ultimately successful
One of the many reasons I like Ipsos MORI is that their polling goes back forty years plus you can help current figures into context and spot new trends.
So this new addition to the Issues Index is very noteworthy, what makes it very noteworthy is that this is based on prompted questions but what is unprompted spontaneously mentions by the respondents.
This finding isn’t surprising as we’ve seen across the world faith in politicians, governments, and national institutions fall, this has seen the rise of what has been characterised as populism
I’d like to see the precise split between a lack of faith in all politicians and the government to see if this driven by a general unpopularity of the government or not. I suspect whatever shade of Brexit Mrs May delivers this figure will increase in the short at least as she’ll end up disappointing a lot of voters.
NEW: August @IpsosMORI Issues Index – public concern about #Brexit stays at last month's historical high. 57% see it as a big issue https://t.co/imMebI9Ph6 pic.twitter.com/YhJNUeO3Gm
— Michael Clemence (@mwclemence) August 30, 2018
The difference this month is that concern about Brexit is more polarised – the gap in concern between CON and LAB supporters has doubled from 13ppt to 25ppt, and we see the same between AB and DE social grades pic.twitter.com/pdPTnB86CG
— Michael Clemence (@mwclemence) August 30, 2018
You can access the full Ipsos MORI data tables by clicking here.