Tory support plunges following reshuffle
Support for the Conservative party has actually dropped since David Cameron's Cabinet reshuffle, despite hopes it would revive the party's fortunes.
Two new polls found support for the party down since the prime minister reorganised his government team last week.
A poll by Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft found Labour's lead extending to eight points, with support for the Tories plunging five to 27%.
Another poll by pollsters Populus found a similar shift, with support for the party falling three points to 32% and support for Labour up two points to 37%.
Other polls have also failed to detect any post-reshuffle bounce for the party.
"The reshuffle has evidently not produced any kind of bounce for the Conservatives," Ashcroft said yesterday.
"This is not surprising – it is the sort of political event that monopolises the attention of everyone in Westminster but goes largely unnoticed everywhere else."
Ashcroft's comments were supported by another poll by YouGov, which found that while 13% thought the reshuffle had made Cameron's team stronger, 16% thought it hat made it weaker.
71% said it had made no difference, or they didn't know.
The poll found that the sacking of Michael Gove as education secretary was widely approved of, with a majority of 55% saying it was the right thing to do.
However, it failed to detect any subsequent rise in support for the government's policies following the reshuffle.
A majority said his successor Nicky Morgan should cancel the government's free school programme, while a plurality of 40% to 32% said she should end the move towards more academies.
Opposition to the bedroom tax was also up significantly since the beginning of the year, with almost half of the public now opposed to it.
However, Nick Clegg's decision to signal opposition to the policy has has received a mixed reception from voters, with 38% saying it reflected well on Clegg, but 44% saying it reflected badly and looked hypocritical.Support for the Conservative party has actually dropped since David Cameron's cabinet reshuffle, despite hopes it would revive the party's fortunes.
Two new polls found support for the party down since the prime minister reorganised his government team last week.
A poll by Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft found Labour's lead extending to eight points, with support for the Tories plunging five to 27%.
Another poll by pollsters Populus found a similar shift, with support for the party falling three points to 32% and support for Labour up two points to 37%.
Other polls have also failed to detect any post-reshuffle bounce for the party.
"The reshuffle has evidently not produced any kind of bounce for the Conservatives," Ashcroft said yesterday.
"This is not surprising – it is the sort of political event that monopolises the attention of everyone in Westminster but goes largely unnoticed everywhere else."
Ashcroft's comments were supported by another poll by YouGov, which found that while 13% thought the reshuffle had made Cameron's team stronger, 16% thought it hat made it weaker.
71% said it had made no difference, or they didn't know.
The poll found that the sacking of Michael Gove as education secretary was widely approved of, with a majority of 55% saying it was the right thing to do.
However, the poll failed to detect any subsequent rise in support for the government's policies following the reshuffle.
A majority said his successor Nicky Morgan should cancel the government's free school programme, while a plurality of 40% to 32% said she should end the move towards more academies.
Opposition to the bedroom tax was also up significantly since the beginning of the year, with almost half of the public now opposed to it.
However, Nick Clegg's decision to signal opposition to the policy received a mixed reception from voters, with 38% saying it reflected well on Clegg, but 44% saying it reflected badly and looked hypocritical.
