So have all the New Labour leadership candidates rejected the New Labour manifesto full of New Labour policies that they were elected onto in May of this year? Thought not.

Another ‘shock’ poll from YouGov:
http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/YG-Archives-Pol-Sun-Blair-010910.pdf

“To get back into power Labour need to distance themselves as much as possible from the legacy of Tony Blair’s government”
30% all voters agree

“Tony Blair did a lot right and won three elections – it would be a mistake for Labour to turn its back on his legacy”
34% all voters agree

Polls: you pays your money and takes your choice…

Were they asked how important it was to distance themselves from the Brown government?

The wording on this question is painfully biased.

YouGov asked respondents if they would be more or less likely to vote Labour at the next election if the new leader were to pledge to “not move a millimetre from the New Labour approach followed by Tony Blair”.

Sure, it reflects a (stupidly, obviously overstated) Blair quote from earlier in the week, but that doesn’t mean it’s a fair way of assessing what people think of his approach.

I’d happily see the words ‘Blair’, ‘Brown’, ‘Mandelson’ and ‘New Labour’ consigned to the bin, but a poll question this manifestly skewed doesn’t suggest much self-confidence in the Ed Miliband camp.

I am betting this poll will not get the front page exposure that polls commissioned to show that “voters back the coalition’s cuts” do.

Agreed Tom.

A poll that suggests no flexibility in one of the options is obviously skewed towards the other option – and the deliberate association of unspecified policy agendas with an unpopular figure does likewise.

Fact is people don’t know what the legacy of blair is or what policies that means or whether they think those policies are good or bad. They just know they don’t much like mr blair.

Well – the poll is simply quoting Tony Blair…

“Well – the poll is simply quoting Tony Blair…”

…who isn’t a candidate in the leadership contest. Yes, it’s using the phrasing he used in the recent BBC interview, and so can be seen as a judgment on his (now relatively irrelevant) viewpoint, but it doesn’t really have much bearing on the contest, which is presumably what Ed M is interested it. And it certain doesn’t translate into “voters reject ‘New Labour’ policies”.

This site really is pretty tabloidy in its tendency to create stories out of thin air.

@8

Hm Blair might not be standing in the leadership contest but it’s a screaming dog-whistle to vote David Miliband when he talks about Labour not moving “a millimetre from the New Labour approach”… it’s pretty obvs that D’Mil is the continuity candidate as far as the Third Way/Nouvelle Labour is concerned. Unsurprisingly the pro-Iraq war Observor haved backed him…

@9

Yes, that’s fair, and I guess it depends on how closely people equate Blair and D. Milliband in the end. However, I still reject this piece’s title.

@4 Tom

“I’d happily see the words ‘Blair’, ‘Brown’, ‘Mandelson’ and ‘New Labour’ consigned to the bin, but a poll question this manifestly skewed doesn’t suggest much self-confidence in the Ed Miliband camp.”

I agree with what some other posters have said about the dangers of setting too much store by this kind of polling. However you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. The issue for the current leadership candidates is not just how to get elected, but (more importantly in the long term) how to attract back those who deserted NuLabour.

As many of us us always suspected, this isn’t going to be done by “not moving a millimetre from NuLabour”…. quite the reverse in fact! The problem for those who want to see a radical, progressive alternative to the nauseating NuLabour project is that NONE of the current leadership are articulating anything which makes you believe they have either repented of their past folly, no indeed come up with anything which makes them worth supporting in the future.