Ipsos MORI/Standard - CON 39, LAB 34, LD 9, UKIP 7, GRN 4
Ipsos MORI have published their September political monitor for the Evening Standard. Topline voting intention figures are CON 39%, LAB 34%, LDEM 9%, UKIP 7%, GRN 4%.
MORI have made another methodological change in the light of the polling error at the general election. Previously they had started including how regularly people say they usually vote in the turnout filter, now they have also added additional weighting by newspaper readership. Again, the methodology review is still an ongoing process, and MORI make clear they anticipate making further changes.
The rest of the poll had a series of questions about perceptions of the party leaders and parties.
Jeremy Corbyn's first satisfaction rating is minus 3 (33% are satisfied with him as leader, 36% dissatisfied). At first glance that isn't bad - it's a better net rating than Cameron or the government! In a historical context though it's not good. New leaders normally get a polling honeymoon, the public give them the benefit of the doubt to begin with and Corbyn's net rating is the worst MORI have recorded for a new leader of one of the big two parties (the initial ratings for past party leaders were Miliband +19, Brown +16, Cameron +14, Howard +9, IDS 0, Hague -1, Blair +18, Smith +18, Major +15, Kinnock +20, Foot +2)
Looking at the more detailed questions on perceptions of Jeremy Corbyn his strengths and weaknesses compared to David Cameron are very similar to the ones we got used to in Cameron v Miliband match ups: Cameron scores better on things like being a capable leader, good in a crisis, sound judgement; Corbyn scores better on being in touch with ordinary people, having more substance than style and being more honest than most politicians. Asked overall who would make the most capable Prime Minister Cameron wins by 53% to 27%.
Of course, all of Jeremy Corbyn's ratings need to be seen in the context that he is very new to the job and the public don't know a whole lot about him beyond the initial negative press. Early perceptions of him may yet change. His figures may get better... or worse.
MORI also asked about perceptions of the Labour and Conservative parties, and here the impact of Corbyn's victory on how the Labour party itself is seen was very evident. The proportion of people seeing the party as divided is up 33 points to 75%, extreme is up 22 points to 36% and out of date is up 19 points to 55%. Both the Labour party and the Conservative party had a big jump in the proportion of people saying they were "Different to other parties" - I suppose it takes two parties to be different from each other!
Full details of the MORI poll are here
