Insight

Voters unsure of Cameron’s performance on Europe

Voters unsure of Cameron’s performance on Europe

When we asked 1,700 likely voters how they thought the prime minister had done in representing the UK?s interests in the European Union, only three in ten (31%) thought Mr Cameron had done a good job, while 39% thought he had done a bad job.

As is so often the case, opinion was divided on party lines with a large proportion (70%) of Conservatives saying he had done a good job and half (52%) of Labour voters saying he had done bad job.

Has Cameron done a good or a bad job representing the UK?s interests?

UKIP voters were slightly more negative than Labour voters, with 60% thinking Cameron had done a bad job in representing British interests on the continent.

Which party is trusted the most to represent Britain

This relatively lackluster view of David Cameron’s performance on the European stage also shows when we asked voters which party they trust the most to handle the UK?s relationship with the rest of the European Union.

23% said they most trusted the Conservatives, neck-and-neck with Labour (also on 23%). Nigel Farage’s UKIP comes impressively near the two major parties on 17%, although a large chunk of voters selected none of the parties listed or ‘don’t know’ (13% and 15% respectively).

Interestingly, Conservatives trusted their own party on handling Europe almost as much as UKIP voters trusted theirs (78% vs. 83%), compared to a smaller proportion of Labour voters (67%) who trusted their party with handling the UK’s relations with the EU.

Voters unsure of Cameron's performance on Europe

Opinium Research carried out an online survey of 1,957 GB adults aged 18+ from 16th to 19th December 2014. Results have been weighted to nationally representative criteria.