Voters go cold on Greens following chaotic campaign launch
Voters believe the Green party do not have realistic policies for running the country and it would be a "bad thing" for them to be part of the government, according to a worrying new poll for the party.
Over half of all voters now say the Greens are a protest party who don't have "realistic" policies, according to the YouGov poll for the Sunday Times. Just 15% believe the party are serious and have "workable" policies.
More worrying for the party, 45% per cent of voters now believe it would be a "bad thing" for the Greens to be part of a coalition government with 29% disagreeing.
This compares to a previous YouGov poll in January which found 34% of voters thought it would be a "good thing" for the party to be part of a coalition government, as opposed to just 26% saying it would be a "bad thing".
There has been an apparent collapse in support for a Green coalition among Labour supporters. In January 45% of Labour voters said a Green-Labour coalition would be a good thing, with just 20% opposing. Today's poll found Labour voters are now evenly split on the issue with 37% saying it would be a good thing and 37% a bad thing.
The findings follow a chaotic launch to their election campaign this week, in which party leader Natalie Bennett was unable to remember her party's policies.
The poll found voters are also ill-informed about Green party policies. Just 27% of voters said they knew at least a fair amount about their policies, the lowest among all major parties.
However, the chaotic week for the party does not yet appear to have damaged their overall standing in the polls. Seven per cent of voters say they still intend to vote for the party, broadly in line with other polls over the past month.
The party will also be encouraged by a finding that 25% of all voters said they are "likely" to consider voting Green, higher than the Liberal Democrats on 23% and just one point behind Ukip on 26%.
