Highlights

Which UK political leader ‘best defends Britain’s interests’? According to a recent poll conducted by Survation on behalf of The Bruges Group, the findings were mixed. Full data tables are available here.

When asked ‘which party leader do you think best defends Britain’s interests’, 37% of those who expressed a view selected the Prime Minister, David Cameron. In comparison, 30% of those who made a choice said that Labour Leader Ed Miliband ‘best defends Britain’s interests’, versus 22% who chose Nigel Farage, MEP and head of UKIP, and 10% who picked Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.

Population Sampled: All adults aged 18+ in England, Scotland and Wales. Total Sample Size: 1053

Key Points (After removing don’t know/refusals)

Which party leader do you think best defends Britain’s interests – Cameron, Miliband, Clegg or Farage?

1) In contrast to recent opinion polls showing Labour ahead of the
Conservatives for voting intention, when it comes to the question of
which party leader best defends Britain’s interests, the Prime Minister
David Cameron enjoys a lead – 37 per cent to 30 per cent over leader of
the opposition Ed Miliband.

2) David Cameron does not have it all his own way however. Almost one
quarter – 24 per cent of responders that voted Conservative in 2010
(22% overall) chose UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage as the
leader that best defends Britain’s interests despite him being an MEP
in a minority group in the European Parliament, separate to the
Conservative Party.

3) Nigel Farage is popular among lower income and working class groups.
Among the AB socio-economic group, David Cameron is the choice of a
large 42% of all responders, however his support falls to 29% of
responders in the “DE” group where he is overtaken by Farage with 30%
and less surprisingly Ed Miliband with 32%

4) Nick Clegg has the lowest retention of current supporters to this
question (which may be partly to do with his position as deputy prime
minister). 59% of current Lib Dem supporters opted for Clegg, v.s. 76%
for Miliband and 83% for Cameron.

5) There is little gender variation between the leaders, except for
UKIP leader Nigel Farage – (a man’s man?) who polled over twice as high
amongst male voters than female.

Data Weighting: Data were weighted to the profile of all adults aged
18+. Data were weighted by sex, age, socio-economic group, and region.

Targets for the weighted data were derived from the National Readership Survey,a random probability survey comprising 36,000 random face-to-face interviews conducted annually.

Data were weighted by Mark Lovelace and analysed and presented by Patrick Briône and Charlotte Jee of Survation.

For further information please contact;

Damian Lyons Lowe
Chief Executive
Survation Ltd
damian.lyonslowe@survation.com