ComRes: Just one in four believes Dave on the NHS
Is the issue still toxic for the blues?
After a polling evening that has seen terrible news on voting intentions for the Lib Dems, a worrying picture on voters views of the economy and Labour, there’s are some tricky numbers for for the Tories in a ComRes/ ITV News poll on the health service changes.
This found that voters are extremely pessimistic about NHS reform plans and Cameron’s handling of them. A large number are calling for the latest plans to be scrapped. More than half (56%) do not trust the PM to keep to the promises he has made on the issue, while only one in four (23%) trust him to keep to his word.
In keeping with this distrust, just one in five (20%) believe that the NHS is safe in the Dave’s hands, with 54% who disagree.
Asked about the possibility that public sector spending cuts will not harm the NHS, two thirds (66%) disagreed. When asked if the Government should scrap the current proposals for NHS reform and start from scratch, 49% agreed and just one in five (19%) disagreed.
More than half (51%) think that Conservative Party’s plans for the NHS are just a way to privatise parts of the health service; one in four disagree with this (23%).
Finally, the proportion who believe that their local NHS services have got worse in the last three months has increased to more than one in three this week (38%), compared to one in four (24%) when asked the same question last October.
Not good numbers but broadly in line with what we’ve seen in other polling.
UPDATE: We now have the data from ComRes here and the poll had no past vote weighting which is the firm’s usual methodology for voting intention surveys. This generally favours Labour.