The funding of political parties and Parliamentarians are hot topics at the moment, and we decided to test the water in our monthly survey by suggesting some options. Findings for party member respondents were as follows:
We would have got more information had we asked respondents to give a Yes/No/Don’t Know reply to each question. So, for example, we would have a finding for those who don’t support a £50,000 donation cap. I regret not doing so.
However, only 18 of the 750 or so respondents skipped the question, so there was evidently a lot of reader interest in it.
And the responses do tell us something – namely, that there is strong minority support among party members for curbs on the funds that political parties raise from private individuals. One of the many questions that follows is: how would the Conservatives manage such a change?
A footnote: only eight respondents didn’t have a view about the Black and White Ball. 22 per cent want to scrap it, 61 per cent to keep it, and the rest don’t know. David Sullivan is safe for another year.
Most Party members clearly aren’t all that bothered about the bad publicity. Among non-party member respondents, by the way, it’s 30 per cent for scrapping it and 56 per cent for keeping it. The findings for the other questions are very much in line with those of the Party member respondents.
The survey is tested against a control panel that was originally supplied by YouGov. Almost 1500 readers replied to the survey overall.