Cameron still leads, but Miliband is catching up
Cameron still leads, but Miliband is catching up
Well over half way through the campaign, and David Cameron has retained his lead as ‘best prime minister’. 37% of likely voters opted for Mr Cameron as best PM, 14 points ahead of Ed Miliband on 23%.
However, the gap between the two has noticeably decreased since the last time we asked this question in late February before the campaign started. Then David Cameron, on 36%, had a lead of 18 points over Ed Miliband on only 18% saying he would make the best prime minister.
This improvement is mainly due to the proportion of Labour voters thinking Miliband would make the best PM rising from 53% to 67%.
Similarly, when we forced voters to choose who they would prefer as prime minister between the leaders of the two major parties, 54% chose David Cameron while 46% chose Ed Miliband, giving the Conservative leader an 8-point lead. However, this is down from the 12-point lead that Cameron had in February.
The effect of the campaign
During this election campaign, David Cameron and Nick Clegg seem to have come off quite badly so far, with noticeably more voters saying their opinion of them has become more negative over the campaign.
However, Ed Miliband and Nicola Sturgeon were the only leaders who had more voters who said their opinion of them had become more positive during the campaign. In the SNP leader’s case, significantly more said their opinion of her had become more positive over the past few weeks than more negative.
Opinium Research carried out an online survey of 1,955 GB adults aged 18+ from 16th to 17th April 2015. Results have been weighted to nationally representative criteria.
