YouGov poll of Labour party members
Today's Times has a new YouGov poll of Labour party members and registered supporters (so members, registered trade unionists and £3 supporters - the same group who were able to vote in the Labour leadership election). Full tabs are here.
65% thought Jeremy Corbyn was doing well as leader, 34% badly as leader. Less promisingly, only 46% think it's likely Labour will win the next election under Corbyn and only 38% think it's likely he will ever be PM. Labour party members think Corbyn is doing well and expect him to lose. This apparent contradiction is easily resolved: 56% of Labour members think parties should say what they believe, even if it's unpopular and loses elections, in comparison 32% think they should compromise in order to put foward policies that allow it to win an election and put policies into action.
Looking forward there is little appetite amongst Labour members for a change of leader: 57% think Corbyn should remain leader and fight the next election, 20% think he should hand over the leadership to someone else at some later point during the Parliament, 18% think he should go now.
There's a sharp division between those who voted Corbyn and the minority who didn't - 86% who voted Corbyn think he's doing well, 66% who didn't vote Corbyn think he's doing badly.
82% of people who voted Corbyn think he should stay till the election, 43% who voted differently think he should stand down now. The vast majority of people who voted for Corbyn think he is doing well and think he should stay on, at least for now; there is no sign at all of buyer's remorse amongst Corbyn's voters. Equally, Labour party members who opposed Corbyn in the leadership election continue to oppose him, there is little sign of them rallying round their new leader. The Labour party remains divided.
It's quite hard to judge whether these figures are good or bad. Surveys of party members are quite rare, most of the time they only happen in the middle of a leadership election when there is no incumbent leader whose ratings we can compare. There were no polls, for example, of Labour party members when Ed Miliband had been in the job for a few months that we can compare to see if David Miliband supporters had rallied round the leader or all still wanted Ed to resign.
79% think the shadow cabinet is divided, but Corbyn's opponents are much more widely blamed for this than Corbyn himself - 54% think the fault is mostly his opponents', 19% Corbyn and his allies, 25% both equally. On balance, there is support amongst the Labour selectorate for mandatory re-selection of MPs - 39% think MPs should be automatically reselected unless they've failed badly or are very unpopular, 52% think all MPs should face a full reselection anyway.
Finally YouGov asked about two specific policy issues facing Labour. On Europe the party membership is clear: 80% would vote for Britain to stay in the EU and 62% think Jeremy Corbyn should actively campaign in favour of EU membership. On Syria Labour party members divide two-to-one against airstrikes and three-to-one against the use of British ground forces in Iraq or Syria. 48% of Labour members think Corbyn should oppose the RAF taking part in airstrikes against ISIS, only 25% think he should support them.
