Last week’s American presidential election pushed back the publication of this month’s ConHome survey results. So here’s the first item this morning, on a subject that featured just a bit in that poll – immigration.
We asked about the importance of a reduction in EU migration as part of an eventual settlement. The result is as follows.
30 per cent of Party member respondents said that a cut “is extremely important to me”, while 23 per cent said that it is “very important”. So, then: that’s 53 per cent at the more restrictive end of the scale.
Meanwhile, 16 per cent said that it is “not very important to me” and 13 per cent that it “is not important at all”. That’s 29 per cent for the less prohibitive view. The remainder plumped for “fairly important”.
You must make of that what you will. For myself, I would expected that 53 per cent figure to be ten or so points higher, and the 29 per cent lower by roughly the same amount.
None the less, the picture is pretty clear. More respondents plumped for the most severe option than for any other – and over half of all those who replied are plainly hawkish on the subject of control.
Theresa May therefore has the support of a majority of Party members, these results suggest, for insisting as part of her negotiation for a cut in immigration.
As readers will see, 815 people who identified as Party members replied to this question in the survey, with only two skipping it: immigration is a matter of abiding interest to our readers.