London: Labour’s lead over the Conservatives has fallen slightly to four points following David Cameron’s Cabinet reshuffle that saw Michael Gove removed as education secretary, according to the latest Observer/Opinium poll.
Ed Miliband’s party stands on 34 per cent, down one point on a fortnight ago, while the Tories are up one point on 30 per cent. Ukip is on 17 per cent, down one, while Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats have recovered to 9 per cent, up two points.
The findings are broadly in line with the average from a range polls over the last two months.
While there is no obvious sign of a “reshuffle bounce” for Cameron, his personal rating has improved markedly compared with two weeks ago. His net score those of who approve of his leadership minus those who disapprove — having improved by eight points to -7.
But Miliband’s rating has also improved by 6 points to -20.
Opinium also asked voters for their views on Gove’s performance in more than four years as education secretary. While more voters thought he had done badly (39 per cent) than well (26 per cent), there were mixed opinions on his reforms of the school system and curriculum.
More people supported the expansion of the academy programme (34 per cent) than opposed it (28 per cent), while 30 per cent had no view.
Similarly opinion was fairly evenly divided on the introduction of “free schools”, with 31 per cent backing the policy, 34 per cent opposing it, and 28 per cent having no opinion.
There was strong support, however, for his drive to make the English and history curriculums more focused on Britain with 57 per cent backing the idea and only 16 per cent opposing it.
Some 42 per cent of voters thought Gove had been too unnecessarily combative and aggressive in his dealing with teachers and others, while 29 per cent believed that he had had to be forceful to push through his reforms.
— Guardian News & Media Ltd
