YouGov verdict on BNP's Question Time

Anthony Wells

— 1 min read
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YouGov have a poll in tomorrow's Telegraph, the first since Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time. It was carried out late yesterday and all day today. There isn't actually very much detail in the Telegraph's report, but there's more at ConservativeHome.

The topline voting intentions, with changes from the poll last weekend, are CON 40%(-1), LAB 27%(-3), LDEM 19%(+2), BNP 3%(+1). So while the BNP support is up, it is nothing significant. 2-3% has been pretty much the norm for their support over the last couple of months, and the most recent YouGov/Telegraph poll at the end of September also had them at 3%. For the other parties, Labour are down from the 30% to 27%, more in line with the ICM and Ipsos MORI figures in the week. YouGov still have the Conservatives down at 40% in comparison to 44% and 43% from ICM and MORI.

Anyway, the poll will really be looked at for evidence of how the BNP's Question Time appearance has gone down, rather than the main parties. As well as voting intention, YouGov asked whether people had positive or negative opinions of the smaller parties - questions that it last asked in June straight after the European elections. Back then 11% of people had a positive impression of the BNP and 72% a negative impression, today's figures are 9% positive and 71% negative, so no sign of any improvement in people's opinion of the BNP either. Despite all the hoohah and protests, despite the millions of people who watched Question Time, it doesn't seem to have made any significant difference to how the public view them, or how likely they are to support them (or at least, not yet).

Asked how likely people would be to vote BNP in a future local, general or European election. 66% said there were no circumstances at all, 15% said it was "possible", which I suspect is more of a "never say never answer". More significant are the 7% who would definitely or probably consider voting BNP at some point in the future.

What has changed was attitudes to the BBC's decision to invite Griffin onto Question Time. At the weekend 63% thought it was right, 23% wrong. Now the balance of opinion has shifted further in favour of the BBC's decision, 74% thinking it was right, and only 11% wrong.

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