Daily Research News Online no. 3940

UK Election Issues

April 1 2005

Just over half Britain's back-bench MPs (51%) believe that the level of participation of young people voting in elections is 'a big problem', and almost all the remainder think it 'quite a problem', according to the latest from TNS. The UK is likely to see a general election within the next two months.

TNS spoke to around a quarter of all Westminster MPs, and found Labour and Liberal Democrat members particularly concerned - only around a third of Conservative MPs surveyed think that encouraging the young to vote is a big problem.

82% of respondents would like to encourage schools and parents to discuss politics more and almost two thirds (65%) agree that more political and current affair issues in the media need to be focused towards young people to give them greater interest in the ballot box. Perhaps surprisingly, only a third feel that offering ways to vote electronically such as interactive TV, text or online would have a positive impact on young people voting. There is equal scepticism about the effect of having more young MPs or candidates, with only 31% believing this would have a positive effect.

Nearly a third (32%) of all MPs support the introduction of compulsory voting, rising to 42% of Labour MPs and falling to 13% of tories.

Liz Bellchambers, Managing Consultant, TNS Polling & Social, commented: 'While most MPs appreciate that more needs to be done to raise the profile of politics and the importance of voting among young people, there is still no real consensus on the best way to achieve this apart from generally trying to put politics higher on the youth agenda. Encouraging schools and parents to do more is only part of the solution. Politicians also need to look at how new technologies and media channels as well as different presentation styles can be used more effectively to attract - and keep - the voters of the future'.

MPs were also asked what they thought were the key issues that will decide the outcome of the next general election. The vast majority see 'the economy and taxes' (93%) and 'health and the NHS' (87%) as the key issues, with more than half (54%) choosing the economy and taxes when asked for the no.1 issue. 'The environment' and 'unemployment' were each considered key by only 23% and 'Europe' by just 26%.

TNS PARLIAMENTARY PANEL JAN - FEB 2005
Q: What will be the key issues that will decide the outcome of the next general election?*
	Total(158)	Lab(98)	Con(39)†	Other(21)†
Economy/taxes	93%	93%	98%	85%
Health/NHS	87%	90%	76%	96%
Education	76%	81%	63%	74%
Crime	74%	70%	85%	70%
Asylum/immigration	63%	61%	80%	41%
Foreign policy/war	61%	57%	59%	89%
Personality/appeal of leader	59%	60%	57%	59%
Party credibility/track record	48%	54%	35%	44%
Strong/united party	36%	39%	28%	37%
Europe	26%	22%	39%	19%
Transport	26%	24%	28%	25%
Third World aid	23%	30%	13%	11%
Environment	23%	26%	20%	19%
Unemployment	23%	32%	11%	-%
Clean party image (no 'sleaze')	22%	22%	13%	37%
Other	9%	6%	11%	19%
Not stated	1%	2%	-	-%
* Percentages add to more than 100% as multiple responses were allowed - Caution - small bases

A majority of Labour (61%), and in particular, Conservative (80%) MPs see 'asylum and immigration' as a key issue that will decide the outcome of the next general election and Conservative MPs believe that this and 'crime' are more important issues than 'education'.

The survey was conducted using the regular TNS Parliamentary Panel of backbench MPs. For this wave, 158 back-benchers were interviewed between 17 January and 10 February 2005. The results have been weighted to reflect the composition of political parties in the House of Commons.

TNS' home page is at www.tns-global.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.