YouGov/Sunday Times - CON 32, LAB 38, LD 8, UKIP 14

The weekly YouGov poll for the Sunday Times is up on the website here, topline figures are CON 32%, LAB 38%, LDEM 8%, UKIP 14%. Tabs are here

A large part of the poll covered perceptions of Ed Miliband, something that we've seen in other polls lately and seen covered a lot in the media. There is nothing particularly new in the Ed Miliband figures in this poll - a majority (51%) think he's weak leader, 56% think he's out of touch with ordinary people, 60% think he wouldn't be up to the job of PM. Nothing here we didn't already know, though they are still worth asking to see if opinion changes. At this point though I doubt they will unless Ed Miliband actually becomes Prime Minister. Once the public have taken against a politician, whether that perception is fair or unfair, it's mighty hard for them to shift(the exception tends to be when they actually become PM, then people can see them in a new light.)

The Ed Miliband paradox is something I've come back to several times here, partly because it's one of those things that I think has the potential to make a difference at the next election, partly because I see such partisan idiocy written about it. I see some people writing about it as if a popular or unpopular leader is the utter be-all and end-all of politics, a guarantee or victory or defeat, and see others writing as if it's a total irrelevance. Both are utter nonsense.

I wrote about it at length here and while the figures have changed, the essential situation hasn't, in summary:

• People's perceptions of party leaders ARE an important factor, the key driver analysis of British Election Study data at recent elections demonstrates it, some respondents will consciously say it is that a primary concern, many others it will be a factor in the mix. It would be almost perverse if the main public face of a party and its policies and principles was not a factor.
• But it is by no means the ONLY factor. Perceptions of party competence on the issues people consider important are of critical importance, so are party identities. By extension (since they drive those factors) government performance and wider perceptions of the parties and their values are also extremely important. Hence it is perfectly possible for a party with a duff leader to win if it is outweighed by other factors like competence and party identity. Thatcher won in 1979 despite trailing badly to Jim Callaghan, presumably because other factors outweighed the minus of her leadership.
• Labour have been in the lead in the polls for a couple of years, despite the public being well aware of Ed Miliband and having a negative view of him. That does NOT mean that he is not a drag on Labour's support (we don't how whether Labour's lead would be larger under a different leader), but it does mean that his negative ratings are already "priced into the market".
• The questions is whether the importance of the opposition leader grows in the immediate run up to an election. There is the potential for people's opinions to be driven mainly by unhappiness and disapproval of the government mid-term, but to view it increasingly as a choice between two alternative governments and Prime Ministers as the election actually approaches (thus contributing to the familiar pattern of "mid term blues"). That brings the potential for the "Miliband issue" to matter more as we get closer and closer to the election... but it is impossible to reliably test.
• In short - are Miliband's ratings bad? Yes. Is it damaging Labour? Probably. Is it preventing Labour being ahead in the polls? No - even if it is a factor, others are outweighing it.

  Will it increase in importance come the actual election? We can't tell.

Anyway, looking at the rest of the poll, since we touched on party image and competence as other big issues further up, YouGov re-asked a question from last February essentially exploring the contrast between parties being "nice" and being "effective". They asked if parties were seen as "nice but dim", "mean but smart", "mean and dim" or "nice and smart". The Conservatives clearly still have "nasty party" issues - 40% think they are smart, but only 26% think they are nice. For Labour it's the other way around "their heart is in the right place, but..."; 48% think they are nice, but only 20% think they are smart. It might get less attention than Miliband, but right there you've got two big issues for the two main parties: people still don't think the Tories' hearts are in the right place, and still doubt Labour's competence in government.

The poll also had a batch of questions about education in England - essentially showing appetite for reform in general, but opposition to the specifics of Michael Gove's reforms. 43% think schools are doing well, 46% badly and people tend to think they provide worse education than in comparable European countries. 64% think schools need reforming to a large or moderate degree.

Asked about Michael Gove though 55% think he's doing badly as education secretary, people are opposed by 41% to 31% to schools becoming academies and by 53% to 23% to the idea of free schools.