Tories punished for omni-shambles
By Oliver Hotham
New opinion polls reveal the lowest public support for the Conservative party since coming into government in May 2010.
The polls by the Guardian/ICM, the Sun/YouGov, and the Evening Standard/Ipsos Mori reflect a difficult month for the government. YouGov puts the Conservatives at 32%, Labour at 43% and the Lib Dems at eight per cent.
ICM has the Conservatives on 33%, Labour on 41% and the Lib Dems on ten per cent.
Ipsos Mori puts the Conservatives at 35%, Labour at 38%, and the Lib Dems at 12%.
The Sun poll also suggests that Ukip has overtaken the Lib Dems, putting the eurosceptic party one point ahead of the junior coalition partners.
But the David Cameron/George Osborne team remains the one the voters trust more on the economy, with the Guardian poll putting them at 44% against 31% for Ed Miliband/Ed Balls.
David Cameron yesterday told the BBC that "we need to raise our game" and that mistakes had been made in dealing with the potential fuel shortage, widely considered one of the government's biggest blunders.
"Sometimes a presentational mistake can be an important mistake," he admitted.
The Ipsos Mori poll revealed that the majority of voters feel negatively towards the Budget, with 60% believing it was bad for them personally.
The news comes as the coalition faces the consequences of one of a trying months – an unpopular Budget, the pasty tax and granny tax, the fuel panic and the failure to deport radical cleric Abu Qatada are all thought to have contributed to the low ratings.
The government also faces a revolt by Tory backbenchers over the proposed Lords reform as the influential 1922 committee firmly stated its opposition last week.
The poll results are bad news for the electoral prospects of mayor of London Boris Johnson and Conservative councillors, who face elections next week, and who may lose votes because of the government's unpopularity.
They also reveal that voters, by wide margins, do not think that three main parties "understand people like me".
