Voters concerned about influence of donors
Voters concerned about influence of donors
To give you some background, funding for the Labour party tends to come from fees from individual members, individual donations and, more significantly, fees from the trade unions which are affiliated with Labour.
The Conservatives are, similarly, funded by individual membership fees but there is no trade union link and the role of donations by individuals (who tend to be very wealthy) is far more significant.
Although recent news has focused on trade unions exerting influence over who Labour?s candidates will be in key Commons seats, voters are actually just as concerned about the influence of wealthy donors over the Conservative party as they are about trade unions influencing the Labour party.
48% of likely voters think the trade unions exert too much influence over the Labour party while 56% are concerned about individuals who donate significant amounts of money to the Conservatives influencing that party. 25% think the unions exert about the right level of influence on Labour while just 19% think the balance is right between wealthy donors and the Conservatives.
Interestingly among voters of each party, the level of concern about the influence of ?the money? on their chosen party is about the same, 26% of Labour voters think the unions have too much sway and 29% of Conservative voters say the same about wealthy donors.
In both cases it seems like supporters of each party are concerned about their leaders paying more attention to their paymasters than their voters.
Opinium Research carried out an online survey of 1,951 GB adults aged 18+ from 10th – 12th July 2013. Results have been weighted to nationally representative criteria.
Interview Method and Sample
This survey is conducted online by CAWI (computer aided web interviewing), using Opinium?s online research panel of circa 30,000 individuals. This research is run from a representative sample of GB adults (aged 18+ in England, Scotland and Wales). The sample is defined from pre-collected registration data containing gender, age (18-34, 35-54, and 55+), region (North East, North West, Yorkshire and Humberside, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, London, South East, South West, Wales, and Scotland), working status and social grade to match the latest published ONS figures.
Opinium also takes into account differential response rates from the different demographic groups, to ensure the sample is representative.
