Tuesday 17 April 2012

UKIP in 3rd place in YouGov poll

UKIP has overtaken the Lib Dems for the first time in a YouGov daily poll.

Last night's YouGov/Sun daily poll has Labour way out in front on 43%, the Tories languishing on 32%, UKIP on 9% and the Lib Dems down to fourth place with 8%.

The "regional" breakdown is very interesting.  The area where UKIP has most support is in the north of England where we are on 12% against the Tories' 22%.  Labour is way ahead on 56%, by far it's highest level of support.  UKIP is on 6% in London and 10% in the rest of the south of England - the Lib Dems are on just 11% in the south of England.

In the Midlands and Wales UKIP is on 8% against 5% for the Lib Dems although the true level of support for UKIP in the midlands is unknown because YouGov lumps it in with Wales, producing nonsense results.  Most surprising of all is that UKIP are on 3% in Scotland whilst the SNP are on 46% - proof that UKIP's old anti-devolution policy is not something the Scots will buy into.

The Greens are on 2% or 3% in every polling "region" in England, including London and 1% in Scotland.  This makes the BBC's promotion of the Greens and exclusion of UKIP in London election programming even more indefensible.  For one day at least, UKIP is the third party in the UK.

It's also time YouGov took UKIP out of the "other" section and put the party on a level footing with the LibLabCon.  Despite UKIP being in third in this poll, YouGov's headline was still "Latest YouGov/Sun results 16th April CON 32%, LAB 43%, LD 8%; APP -40".  Survation and Angus Reid both treat UKIP equally, including the party on graphics and in headline figures, it's time YouGov caught up with their competitors and stopped trying to unduly influence elections by promoting the status quo parties.