YouGov finds that people are a lot more negative and less positive about UKIP now compared with last Euro elections in 2009
It’s not all rosy for the purple team
The pollster that came top in the EP14 polling accuracy table, YouGov, has issued comparative data about whether people feel positive or negative about UKIP compared with five years ago when they beat LAB for 2nd place in the Euro elections.
The data is in the chart and probably reflects that voters are now treating UKIP a lot more seriously than they were five years ago.
We’ve seen this trend in other finding to other questions from a range of pollsters.
This is how YouGov’s Peter Kellner viewed the findings:-
“..Overall, Ukip has not so much won new friends as polarised public opinion. Ukip did better this time at turning diminishing approval into votes, but it also alienated far more of the electorate. Millions more voters now regard Ukip negatively than in 2009, and fewer decline to take sides..”
There is a danger in first past the post elections that the candidate seen as being best able to beat UKIP might attract tactical votes.
We’ll see what happens in Newark on Thursday.