YouGov poll of Lib Dem members
More results from YouGov's poll of party members are published in the Telegraph today. Ming Campbell remains the most popular choice of leader amongst Lib Dem party members with the support of 49% of respondents, compared to 21% for Simon Hughes and 13% for Mark Oaten. It is worth remembering that the majority of responses were received last Friday, so represent the views of Lib Dem party members prior to Kennedy's resignation - they may already have changed.
Campbell also leads amongst ordinary Lib Dem voters, though not so convincingly - Campbell 26%, Hughes 20%, Oaten 8%.
47% of Lib Dem voters said they didn't know, suggesting that the candidates are not yet that well known amongst the wider body of Lib Dem supporters, and perhaps contributing towards Simon Hughes's proportionally greater support, given that he is probably the most well-known of the three candidates.
YouGov also asked a question about where the Lib Dems should position themselves politically - both party members and Lib Dem voters were split between a position equidistant between Conservative and Labour (supported by 38% of members and 35% of LD voters), and a position to the left of the Labour party (32% and 31% respectively). There was very little (6% and 7%) support for positioning the party closer to the Conservatives, and virtually none for a position to the right of the Conservatives.
Asked how they would vote if there was not a Lib Dem candidate in their constituency (a question that can be seen as something of a proxy for how Lib Dem supporters may vote tactically in unwinnable seats), Lib Dem voters now split pretty evenly between Labour and the Conservatives (26% and 23%). In this regard Lib Dem members seem to be somewhat more left wing than their voters - 12% would vote Tory if there was no Lib Dem candidate, compared to 24% who would vote Labour.
UPDATE - The poll was actually far more extensive than the figures published in the Telegraph today - most of the questions have become rather irrelevant since Kennedy's resignation so weren't printed. For the record the full results are up on the YouGov website in the results section (or will be in the next hour or two - link on the left). There were some interesting parts the Telegraph didn't cover - Lib Dem members' opinions on Kennedy included more evidence that Lib Dem members support a left-wing future for the party, while members almost universally thought Kennedy was a decent chap and deserved credit for the party's recent successes, 51% thought he was wrong to abandon the party's commitment to tax increases. 51% also thought that he had not capitalised enough on the party's opposition to the war.
One of the questions asked about how the removal of Kennedy will affect the Lib Dems is whether there will be a backlash against the Lib Dems over the way they treated their former leader; whether his removal will damage their reputation as being "nice". At the moment it's too early to tell, but perhaps an early indicator is that 46% of Lib Dem voters think that MPs did act honorably towards Kennedy; 34% of Lib Dem voters though think they should have supported their leader wholeheartedly.
