So there is a majority for Theresa May’s present posture of culling the tax pledge – which is set to be to sustained for the manifesto – but while certainly clear-cut it is far from overwhelming.
58 per cent want it scrapped and 39 per cent want it kept. Take into account the Prime Minister’s standing within both country and party at the moment, and it looks as though the pledge can be omitted from the manifesto without an internal revolt. (Although the Daily Telegraph is unhappy this morning, as other centre-right papers and think-tanks will be, and appears to have ruled out a rise on VAT.)
Meanwhile, the view of readers as a whole is 52 per cent for pulling it, and 42 per cent for reissuing it. Push the six per cent don’t knows into the latter column, on the basis of them not having plumped for change, and the result is 52 per cent to 48 per cent – figures that may ring a bell.
To date, we have 4942 reader responses to the survey as a whole. That’s a record, as is the 1392 Party member response above. 4303 replied to our July 2016 survey, while the last Conservative leadership contest was under way, which marked the previous biggest response.