ADVERTISEMENT

Almost Half of U.K. Voters Want New Centrist Party, Poll Shows

Almost Half of U.K. Voters Want New Centrist Party, Poll Shows

(Bloomberg) -- Almost half the U.K. public now wants to see a new centrist political party as the Labour opposition party lurches further to the left and Liberal Democrats appear to lose faith in their own party, a new poll showed Saturday.

There’s a 49 percent interest in a new party compared with 46 percent a year ago, according to a ComRes poll for the Sunday Express newspaper. That figure rises to 64 percent among people who say they usually vote for the Liberal Democrats.

The shift is “fueled by Liberal Democrat voters who appear not to see their own party as that new political force, and Labour voters who may be cautious about the direction in which Labour is moving,” Andrew Hawkins, ComRes chairman, said in an email.

ComRes surveyed 2,038 adults April 11-12. It provided no margin of error for the poll, which also showed that fewer than one in three think Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn would lead the country “well” if he became prime minister, and only 31 percent say the current government “seems to be managing the Brexit process well.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Bernard Kohn, Ros Krasny

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.