Political class struggling for environmental credibility
Political class struggling for environmental credibility
On the whole, most political parties appear to lack credibility on the environment, with two in five (38%) picking ?none of the above? when we asked “which party would you most trust to support environmental issues”. Labour came out top with 18%, followed closely by 16% for the Tories.
In general, only around half of supporters of each party trusted their own side to promote environmental issues, with UKIP getting the lowest score from its own voters (33%).
As far as the Government?s record goes, one in six (15%) agreed that David Cameron had lived up to his promise for the coalition to be the ?greenest government ever?, while almost half (46%) disagreed.
More than a third (37%) agreed that the Government is prioritising short term economic growth over sustainable use of the environment, while a fifth (20%) disagreed.
Similar numbers agreed among the voters of all three major parties, suggesting there could be very different motivations for supporting the statement – for example, Conservative voters could be applauding it, and Labour voters condemning it. UKIP supporters were the only voters who were more evenly divided.
Opinium Research carried out an online survey of 1,701 likely voters. Results have been weighted to nationally representative criteria. The research was conducted from 8th to 10th April 2014.
