Lib Dems hit new poll low
by Peter Wozniak
A YouGov daily tracker poll has support for the Liberal Democrats plumbing a new low of 11%.
The poll, which has the Conservatives sitting on a five point lead over Labour at 43 to 38, remains broadly consistent with the recent polling for the Lib Dems, but that will not be a cause for celebration at the party’s Cowley Street HQ.
The Lib Dems have seen a steady plummet in their poll ratings since the general election, where they garnered twenty-three per cent of the vote.
The new poll will not be a cause for immediate panic given it remains within the margin of error of Yougov’s recent polls, but its symbolic quality as the lowest rating for the party since before Nick Clegg became leader in 2007 will add to the growing atmosphere of anxiety.
The party’s conference this month is likely to be the focal point for Lib Dem discontent over the coalition with the Conservatives, with fears that Lib Dem policy is being subsumed beneath the weight of Tory influence.
Nick Clegg himself remains popular with party members, as the first Liberal leader to crowbar his party into government in nearly a century, as suggested by a recent poll for the Liberal Democrat Voice blog.
However, the sliding poll ratings will be a cause of concern for many within the party, as they have one eye on important local elections next year, and will look to arrest the decline in support before then.
Signs of open discontent at the party conference would spell troubling times for the coalition government, though the Lib Dems have a vested interest in postponing a new general election as long as possible.
The rating of 11%, if replicated on a uniform national swing, would leave the party with less than a dozen seats in the House of Commons.
