YouGov/Sunday Times - CON 34, LAB 43, LD 10, UKIP 6
The weekly YouGov results for the Sunday Times are now online here. Topline voting intention figures are CON 34%, LAB 43%, LDEM 10%, UKIP 6% - still very much in line with the 9-10 Labour leads that YouGov have been averaging about of late. The rest of the poll dealt mainly with the economy and the photos of Prince Harry.
Economic figures remain extremely bad. 80% of people think the economy is in a bad state and only 9% expect it to get better over the next twelve months. On George Osborne himself, only 14% think he is doing a good job as Chancellor and only 18% think David Cameron should keep him in the role, compared to 54% who want him replaced. Answers to the latter question remain very split along partisan lines - a majority of Labour and Lib Dem voters want Osborne replaced, amongst the Conservative party's own supporters 29% think that Osborne should go, 47% that he should stay.
On the deficit, 75% of people think that it is very or fairly important that the government reduces it, but only 22% of people think that the government are doing well at this so far (60% think they are not).
Asked about various measures to address the deficit or improve the economy, the most popular is a reduction in regulation (probably because it doesn't come with an direct economic cost so looks like an "easy" option compared to the others presented), this is followed by borrowing more to spend on large infrastructure projects. Least popular would be increasing taxes, or borrowing money to cut taxes.
Turning to the Prince Harry photos, 60% of people said the papers were right NOT to publish the photos, with 28% saying they should have been published.
68% say Harry's behaviour was acceptable for a young single man having fun on a private holiday and the photo does not appear to have done any damage to public perceptions of him. 13% say it makes them think more negatively about him, but 12% say it makes them think more positively about him. 71% say it makes no difference to their view. Overall 75% say they have a positive opinion of Harry, compared to 20% who have a negative opinion. More generally 45% of people say the press report too much of the royal family's private lives, 10% that they give them too much privacy and don't report stories that are of legitimate public interest, 35% think the balance is about right.
Finally on opening hours, 44% would support abolishing Sunday opening rules, 37% support going back to the usual rules after the Paralympics, 11% would support a complete ban on large shops opening on Sundays.
There is also a Survation poll in the Mail on Sunday - their topline figures are CON 30%(+1), LAB 37%(nc), LDEM 10%(-3), UKIP 12%(nc), Others 10%(nc). Changes are from their previous poll at the beginning of June. The high level of UKIP support looks eyebrow raising, but is pretty typical for Survation and is due to methodological reasons (Survation include UKIP in the main prompt alongside the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats).
