27th May 2009

Greens look like main beneficiaries of anti-sleaze protest vote - as polls indicate Greens are up, UKIP and BNP down

A YouGov poll to be published tomorrow (i) suggests the British public trusts Green politicians far more than those of other parties. Over 2,000 people were asked - regardless of the party they normally voted for - which party's politicians they thought were most likely to put their own financial interests before the interests of their country. Allowed to choose three parties, only 5% named the Greens.

On the mistrust scale:

•     Labour appeared to be the least trusted, with 45% of respondents naming Labour politicians as likely to put financial self-interest before their country.

•     The Conservatives were almost as bad, with 40% naming them.

•     Next were the BNP, the LibDems and UKIP on 20%, 16% and 15% respectively.

The new poll was released in the same week that campaign group Open Democracy rated the Green Party's leader Caroline Lucas as the joint best British MEP on accountability, transparency and reform. The bottom nine places in the Open Democracy survey were occupied by four Conservatives and five UKIP MEPs - with the tenth-worst British MEP slot being held jointly by UKIP leader Nigel Farage and an MEP each from Labour, the Conservatives and the LibDems. See more comment on this here.
 
 
Voter-intention polls show Greens up, UKIP and BNP down
 
The Greens say that while there's much talk of a protest vote going to the racist BNP in response to the ongoing sleaze scandal, in fact the opinion polls are showing the Green Party to be a far more likely recipient of any protest vote.

•     The ComRes poll of 17 May, commissioned by UKIP, put the Greens on 11% and the BNP on just 4%.
•     The ComRes poll put the Greens on 13% across Northern England - easily enough for Green candidate Peter Cranie to defeat BNP leader Nick Griffin in the North West contest.
•     The ComRes poll showed the Greens in third place in the South East, ready to return party leader Caroline Lucas MEP and scoop up a second seat for Brighton councillor Keith Taylor.
•     The next day a YouGov poll commissioned by the Green Party suggested 34% would either definitely vote Green or would consider voting Green in the Euro-elections.
•     And the Guardian/ICM poll of 22 May put the Greens on 9% - just behind UKIP (10%) and way ahead of the BNP (1%).

The Guardian/ICM poll showed a Green increase of 50% compared with the actual 2004 vote (up from 6% to 9%) while UKIP was down 60% (from 16% to 10%) and the BNP vote was cut by about four-fifths (down from 5% to 1%).
 
Philip Booth, a Stroud District councillor commented: "Polls ahead of Euro-elections usually underestimate Greens. In 1989 the Greens were polling on about 7-8% but their actual vote turned out to be 15%. Our million-jobs manifesto for tackling the recession and the climate crisis at the same time seems to have struck a chord with a lot of people on the doorsteps." 

Notes to editors:

(i) Poll commissioned by the Green Party and conducted by YouGov. Fieldwork 13-15 May 2009. Sample size 2,111. The exact question was: "Regardless of the party you usually vote for, which party's politicians do you think are most likely to put their own financial interests ahead of the interests of the country? [Please tick up to three.]"