Published: September 18th 2010 - at 7:34 pm

Poll: Over half of LD voters – Clegg ‘sold out’


by Sunny Hundal    

52% of Lib Dem voters at the election say Clegg has “sold out”. 40% say they would have voted differently if they had known about Tory coalition.

These are the findings from a new Comres Poll out tonight, for tomorrow’s Independent on Sunday.

Full questions and answers:

By going into coalition with the Conservatives, the Lib Dems appear to have sold out on their principles
Agree: 52% (41% May) Lib Dem voters 52%
Disagree: 28% (47% May) Lib Dem voters 32%

I would have voted differently at the election if I had known that the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives would enter into a coalition
Agree: 19% Lib Dem voters 40%
Disagree: 64% Lib Dem voters 47%

I don’t really know what David Cameron stands for
Agree: 37% (was 53% in July 2009)
Disagree: 51% (was 42% in July 2009)

I don’t really know what Nick Clegg stands for
Agree: 57% Lib Dem voters 42%
Disagree: 31% Lib Dem voters 47%

More questions:
(“Lib Dem voters” say they voted Lib Dem in 2010. In subsequent questions, “Lib Dem supporters” refers to respondents who say they would vote Lib Dem in a general election tomorrow.)

The spending cuts proposed by the Coalition Government go too far
Agree: 52% Lib Dem supporters 48%
Disagree: 32% Lib Dem voters 37%

The Conservatives have more to gain than the Liberal Democrats by being in the coalition
Agree: 54% Lib Dem supporters 64%
Disagree: 26% Lib Dem voters 25%

Replacing student tuition fees with a tax on all graduates
Support: 34% Lib Dem supporters 41%
Oppose: 34% Lib Dem voters 27%

Cancelling the schools building programme to save money
Support: 24% Lib Dem supporters 24%
Oppose: 59% Lib Dem voters 59%

Renewing Britain’s Trident nuclear submarine fleet
Support: 24% Lib Dem supporters 19%
Oppose: 50% Lib Dem voters 63%

Building new nuclear power stations
Support: 48% Lib Dem supporters 45%
Oppose: 30% Lib Dem voters 37%

Raising VAT to 20%
Support: 26% Lib Dem supporters 35%
Oppose: 64% Lib Dem voters 57%

The Government commitment to cuts across spending departments of up to 40%
Support: 43% Lib Dem supporters 50%
Oppose: 40% Lib Dem voters 34%

The full data is here


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About the author
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Story Filed Under: News


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Reader comments


1. Margin4eror

I’m willing to sound like a broken record and suggest they are acting utterly on their principles – and it just happens that lots of people mistakenly thought their principles were progressive before the election.

2. Galen10

1

Either you believe the LD’s had progressive principles before the election which they jettisoned in return for a share of power, or you don’t believe they were ever progressive in the first place, and just had most of the media and electorate fooled.

On balance I’d say the former was much the more likely. How progressive was New Labour? What was the alternative exactly?

The jury is probably still out on the long term significance of the ConDem experiment. Time will tell if Clegg goes down in history as the person who destroyed the LD’s, or the person who took a pragmatic stance and made the best of a bad situation.

I think many people in his own party (perhaps even the majority?) now wish they had not formed the coalition, or at least that they had wrung more out of the Tories as the price of their support.

Is now the time to say “I told you so”?

3. blanco

Is this irrational hatred of Lib Dems anything to do with the fact that you are intensely embarrassed for having voted for them just a few months ago?

Is it a bit like how you once told brown people to vote Tory?

I wonder how many voters Labour lost, and how many thought Labour sold out over Iraq, tuition fees, etc etc…

4. Margin4eror

Galen

I’m in the second camp. I firmly believe that they were never progressive and that it was just political expediency that made them pretend on a handful of issues.

They long ago turned the “dem” part of their abbreviated title into an anachronism. They are the Liberal Party – they always have been for the most part – and the Liberal Party has always been in favour of a small state and less redistribution from rich to poor.

Blanco

People say “sold out” when really they mean “believes different things to me” – Iraq is a good example of that. Labour had no long history of anti-war activism. It had been pro-war numerous times throughout its history and in 1999 over-ruled the UN to attack Serbia. But because people didn’t like the Iraq war, they considered it “selling out”

It is much the same with the lib dems. Most of what they are doing in government fits perfectly well with their liberal ideology. Indeed I can barely think of anything this government has done that doesn’t fit their outlook. Yet people claim it is “selling out” because those same people would prefer them to stand for something else.


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

    New poll: Over half of Libdem voters think Clegg 'sold out' http://bit.ly/dgIwlR

  2. Ged Robinson

    RT @libcon: New poll: Over half of Libdem voters think Clegg 'sold out' http://bit.ly/dgIwlR

  3. Rosa Rubicondior

    RT @gedrobinson: RT @libcon: New poll: Over half of Libdem voters think Clegg 'sold out' http://bit.ly/dgIwlR

  4. Jeevan Rai

    RT @sunny_hundal: New poll tonight says over half of Libdem voters think Clegg 'sold out' party's principles http://bit.ly/dgIwlR

  5. Andy Edwards

    RT @sunny_hundal: New poll tonight says over half of Libdem voters think Clegg 'sold out' party's principles http://bit.ly/dgIwlR

  6. Kevin McKeever

    RT @sunny_hundal: New poll tonight says over half of Libdem voters think Clegg 'sold out' party's principles http://bit.ly/dgIwlR

  7. Jackie

    RT @sunny_hundal: New poll tonight says over half of Libdem voters think Clegg 'sold out' party's principles http://bit.ly/dgIwlR

  8. Adam Jennison

    RT @libcon: New poll: Over half of Libdem voters think Clegg 'sold out' http://bit.ly/dgIwlR

  9. Huw Irranca-Davies

    http://bit.ly/dgIwlR not easy reading on Day 1 of LibDem conference

  10. Andrew Roche

    RT @libcon: New poll: Over half of Libdem voters think Clegg 'sold out' http://bit.ly/dgIwlR

  11. Simon Grover

    RT @libcon New poll: Over half of Libdem voters oppose cuts + think Clegg 'sold out' http://bit.ly/dgIwlR

  12. Warren Morgan

    Poll: Over half of LD voters – Clegg ‘sold out’ | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/Q6c5c2m via @libcon

  13. andrew

    Poll: Over half of LD voters – Clegg 'sold out' | Liberal Conspiracy: Liberal Conspiracy · Home · Westminster Unio… http://bit.ly/bhNTOf

  14. Bob Connors

    #homeland Suddenly Nick Cohen realises counter-terrorism laws can be abused: … principles http://bit.ly/dgIwlR … http://bit.ly/9WjbfW

  15. Derek Thomas

    RT @libcon: New poll: Over half of Libdem voters think Clegg 'sold out' http://bit.ly/dgIwlR

  16. SMS PolicyWatch

    RT @libcon: New poll: Over half of Libdem voters think Clegg 'sold out' http://bit.ly/dgIwlR

  17. Chris Keegan

    I certainly wouldn't have voted Lib Dem (it will take a lot for me to again under Nick Clegg) http://ow.ly/2GHTR ^CK





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