After the 2005 election, Lord Ashcroft famously published polling (Smell The Coffee) showing that voters often supported a particular policy until they were told that it had been proposed by the Tories (the psephological basis for “detoxification”). It seems that George Osborne now has a similarly toxic effect. A new poll by Ipsos MORI for the Evening Standard shows that voters back Osborne’s deficit reduction plan – but only if the Chancellor’s name isn’t mentioned.
Asked whether “tackling the deficit and keeping interest rates low should be our top priority” (the Osborne position) or whether “we need more government spending on investment to kick-start our economy and a temporary cut in taxes to support growth” (the Balls position), 52 per cent said the former and 41 per cent the latter. But when the policies are associated with their respective authors, the coalition’s 11-point lead becomes a Labour lead of 16 points. Only 37 per cent say they support Osborne’s approach, compared to 53 per cent who support Balls’s.
The poll will embolden those Conservative MPs who have long argued that Osborne is acting as a drag on Tory support and who are preparing to demand the removal of the Chancellor if the economy fails to improve. It’s also evidence that, far from being a “toxic” figure (as Anthony Seldon claimed in the New Statesman last month), the shadow chancellor is an asset to his party.
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