One tweet sums up the cynical discussion of Labour’s recent polling

Some people in the public sphere and establishment media have been heavily focussing on a poll which put Labour in fourth place. These same people have had a very different reaction to a poll which put Labour in the lead. One tweet has nailed the cynicism going on here:
Rob Ford on Thursday’s YouGov poll putting Labour in 4th: “Parties can die if people stop believing in them”
Rob Ford on on today’s Opinium poll putting Labour in 1st: “Tribal partisans need to stop getting excited over tiny differences in polls” pic.twitter.com/eCKfSncpyZ
— Stephen Smith (@SteveNickSmith) July 7, 2019
Silly season
Recent polls from different companies have seen Labour’s position vary from being in the lead to fourth position. Even if Labour were definitively ahead, the big dip both it and the Conservatives have faced is clearly not good for them. Despite this obvious uncertainty, many are confidently stating that Labour is trailing in the polls.
Read on...
Here’s a snapshot of some recent polls from pollsters like Opinium, YouGov, Ipsos Mori, and Survation:
Britain Elects currently averages these out as follows:
Many people are discussing this YouGov poll:
Westminster voting intention:
CON: 24% (+2)
BREX: 23% (+1)
LDEM: 20% (+1)
LAB: 18% (-2)
GRN: 9% (-1)via @YouGov, 02 – 03 Jul
Chgs. w/ 25 Jun— Britain Elects (@britainelects) July 3, 2019
The same people seem less interested in the Opinium poll from a few days later:
Westminster voting intention:
LAB: 25% (-1)
CON: 23% (+3)
BREX: 22% (-1)
LDEM: 15% (-1)
GRN: 8% (+2)via @OpiniumResearch, 03 – 05 Jul
Chgs. w/ 20 Jun— Britain Elects (@britainelects) July 6, 2019
Politics professor Rob Ford advising people to “stop getting excited about tiny differences” is good advice. Few people seem to be following it. Political editor of Sky News Beth Rigby – tweeting after the Opinium poll came out – referred to the YouGov figure in a way which made it sound like an average rather than just one poll:
As Lab polls 18%, Sun Times reports of splits between Corbyn’s trusted political allies & key aides. Meanwhile, party bracing for more anti-semitism revelations in #panorama. Party insider: “There’s a feeling Lab on verge of another complete breakdown & it’s all about to explode” pic.twitter.com/NIDK1gCpys
— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) July 7, 2019
Former Labour MP Ian Austin got so excited by this one poll that he wrote an article condemning “racism and extremism” for the Daily Mail:
Labour's now in fourth place on just 18%.
Corbyn has the worst ratings of any leader of the opposition ever.
The party has been poisoned by racism and extremism.
When will decent MPs and members get rid of him?
Read my article for today's Daily Mail here:https://t.co/TF5FFGlxhX— Ian Austin (@IanAustinMP) July 5, 2019
Several people pointed out the issue with how polls were reported on the Andrew Marr Show:
It’s a real failure of @BBCPolitics that they pick & choose which stats & polls to challenge. This was just one, it is not attend. #Marr should know better to make such an omission, it’s all part of the media bias against Labour.
— Diane Hain (@dianehain) July 7, 2019
On today's #Marr programme, I counted at least 3 references to last week's YouGov poll that put Labour in 4th place. I counted 0 references to today's Opinium poll that has Labour in the lead, or any of the other five polls that currently have Labour ahead of the Tories.
— Chuka Umunna's Flip Flops (@WarmongerHodges) July 7, 2019
Aaron Bastani predicted this the day before:
Such a shame any polls where Labour are ahead can’t be discussed by the media 😢
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) July 6, 2019
Certainties
There are a few things we can say for certain right now:
There’s a lot of confusion. The big winners have been the Brexit Party and Liberal Democrats who’ve taken their vote from the historically larger parties. Some polling companies also have a better record than others. Polls taken before elections can be a poor indicator of how things turn out.
What we can’t say is that Labour is behind in the polls. So why are people who should know better doing exactly that?
Featured image via Sophie Brown – Wikimedia
We need your help to keep speaking the truth
Every story that you have come to us with; each injustice you have asked us to investigate; every campaign we have fought; each of your unheard voices we amplified; we do this for you. We are making a difference on your behalf.
Our fight is your fight. You’ve supported our collective struggle every time you gave us a like; and every time you shared our work across social media. Now we need you to support us with a monthly donation.
We have published nearly 2,000 articles and over 50 films in 2021. And we want to do this and more in 2022 but we don’t have enough money to go on at this pace. So, if you value our work and want us to continue then please join us and be part of The Canary family.
In return, you get:
* Advert free reading experience
* Quarterly group video call with the Editor-in-Chief
* Behind the scenes monthly e-newsletter
* 20% discount in our shop
Almost all of our spending goes to the people who make The Canary’s content. So your contribution directly supports our writers and enables us to continue to do what we do: speaking truth, powered by you. We have weathered many attempts to shut us down and silence our vital opposition to an increasingly fascist government and right-wing mainstream media.
With your help we can continue:
* Holding political and state power to account
* Advocating for the people the system marginalises
* Being a media outlet that upholds the highest standards
* Campaigning on the issues others won’t
* Putting your lives central to everything we do
We are a drop of truth in an ocean of deceit. But we can’t do this without your support. So please, can you help us continue the fight?
-
Show Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to leave a comment.Join the conversationPlease read our comment moderation policy here.
There are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics. Then there’s polls.
There must be an early election in the air.
Last week it was Corbyn’s health that was the Headlines, today it is ONE poll
The Establishment are panicking.
I am going to inject another healthy dose of cynicism here. I do not forget for one minute, not one nano second that the Tory’s are ahead in any Polls let alone second. I prefer to look at facts in these matters. Evidence shows that, in the recent Local Elections, despite information published by the MSM, the Tories took a serious drubbing losing over 1000 seats. The Labour vote actually held up very well and, although they lost seats, overall they lost very few councils and gained some key Tory ones. The Tories came third in these elections. Labour won the Peterborough By-Election despite a vicious, malicious, nasty, hateful, personal campaign by the MSM against Corbyn. The Tories? Well they came last. So the facts don’t seem to support these Polls do they.
Allow me to acquaint you with some information from the USA elections. I cannot remember which year this was but Janet Reno the then Attorney General a Democratic Party Senator, stood for re-election in her constituency. She had been previously elected with a significant majority. The Republicans were not going to allow re-election of a Democrat and, being the Dirty Tricks Party that they are who will do anything, absolutely anything, including Watergate and other illegal activities, requested the MSM to produce Poll Figures that showed disastrous polling for the Democrats and high polling for the Republicans. Murdoch’s organisation duly complied. The Democrats were so worried they would lose Janet Reno, they pulled her out of that seat and put her into another one. Another Democrat candidate replaced her in that area. Well, the Democrats, I think if I remember correctly, won the vote by quite a large margin. When the truth eventually came out about the Polls, they were found to have been fabricated, totally fabricated in order to influence the election against the Democrats.
Now, given that Pompeo and Trump have made public Statements that they would never allow Corbyn to come to Power, I strongly suspect they are behind the manipulation of some of these Polls. No way, and I mean no way, given recent elections can the Tory’s even be in 2nd place let alone 1st. Hey, Democracy in this country is seriously dead.