A post-election Conservative-led coalition may be more unlikely than a post-election led Conservative minority government…but we thought it worthwhile to run a check on party members’ and readers’ red lines for any new coalition agreement (with any party).
And we duly found not much change since we last asked the question well over a year ago. Then, party members’ top priorities were holding the promised In/Out EU referendum in 2017 and attempting to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU,
And today, they are…holding the promised In/Out EU referendum in 2017 and attempting to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU – which scored 8.5 and 8.4 respectively. We asked respondents to list a series of issues on a scale of one to ten, with one representing “very negotiable” and ten representing “non negotiable”. In 2013, they scored 8.5 each.
English votes for English laws is up from 7.3 to 8.2, and eliminating the structural deficit from 7.4 to 8.1. I could go on in detail, but you get the main point: very, very little has changed as far as party members and red lines is concerned. In this respect at least, the poll is very consistent indeed.
And the view of non-party member readers? The referendum comes in at 8.6 and the renegotiation at 8.1, doubtless reflecting a marginally higher proportion of Outers among them. There were over 800 responses by party member readers, and the findings are set against a control panel that was supplied by YouGov.