Burnham ahead among Labour voters
Andy Burnham ahead of rivals among Labour voters
Among current Labour voters, rather than just party members, Andy Burnham remains the favourite to succeed Ed Miliband, with 39% saying they would vote for him to be the next Labour leader if they had a vote in the election. Next is Jeremy Corbyn on 24%, followed closely by Yvette Coooper (22%). Liz Kendall comes last with only 15% saying they would vote for her.
When we look at different voters split out by their political leaning, we found that Andy Burnham remains ahead among all supportive of Labour although different groups have different second preferences. Amongst Labour supporters who lean towards right wing parties, Burnham is only just ahead of Yvette Cooper (32% vs 29%), while amongst Labour supporters tempted to vote for other left wing parties Burnham is only just ahead of Jeremy Corbyn (35% vs 31%).
When we look outside the realm of current Labour supporters, Tories that would consider voting for left wing parties narrowly favour Andy Burnham, but voters considering a vote for the Greens clearly favour Jeremy Corbyn.
Burnham is considered the most likely to win a general election
Andy Burnham is still considered by most Labour voters to be a good bet to lead the party to victory in future elections. Seven in ten (70%) thought he would be likely to win a general election as leader. By comparison the other candidates don’t seem to inspire as much confidence. Yvette Cooper is seen as likely to win an election by 57%, with a further half (51%) saying the same about Jeremy Corbyn.
Just over half (53%) of Labour voters think Liz Kendall would be unlikely to win a general election as leader.
Many have no particular reaction to any of the candidates winning
When we asked Labour voters if they would be happy or unhappy if each of the candidates won the leadership election, Burnham again elicits the most positive response. 57% of Labour voters would be happy if the Shadow Health Secretary became party leader, followed by Yvette Cooper (46%), Jeremy Corbyn (40%) and Liz Kendall (35%).
However, what is striking is the large proportion of Labour voters who said they would have no particular reaction to any candidate’s victory. Just under half (47%), for example, said they would have no particular reaction to Kendall becoming leader.
Opinium Research carried out an online survey of 1,942 GB adults aged 18+ from 24th to 27th July 2015. Results have been weighted to nationally representative criteria.
