BBC Today / Populus Survey December 2005

The BBC Today Programme Opinion Survey, conducted in early December 2005, contained two questions on immigration which were not mentioned on the programme. The following is an extract together with our comment. The full report can be found at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/pdf/polling_december_05_fulltables.pdf

Q1 How much do you trust the Conservative Party to deal with immigration?

	All	AB	C1	South East	Swing Voters
Trust completely	19	23	18	22	16
Trust somewhat	31	34	29	30	34
	50	57	47	52	50
Distrust somewhat	15	15	19	15	18
Distrust completely	28	24	29	26	24
	43	39	48	42	42
Don’t know	7	4	5	7	8

MW Comment

Those inclined to trust the Conservatives on immigration outnumbered those who tended to distrust them by 50:43.

Trust was strong among ABs at 57:39, weaker among C1 at 47:48 but swing voters were similar to the total sample at 50:42.

Q2 Would you be more or less likely to vote Conservative at the next general election, or would it make no real difference, if they pledged to introduce an annual limit on the number of immigrants coming to Britain?

	All	18-24	45-54	AB	Swing Voters
Much more likely	33	35	25	29	35
A little more likely	15	12	13	14	17
	48	47	38	43	52
No real difference	36	33	46	37	34
A little less likely	4	1	6	4	4
Less likely	9	13	9	14	7
	13	14	15	19	11
Don't know/refused	5	6	1	1	3

MW Comment

There was strong support in the sample as a whole for an annual limit to immigration 48:13 (nearly four to one). The younger vote (18-24) split almost exactly the same at 47:14. The middle aged were much more neutral with 46% saying that such a pledge would make no difference to their vote. The AB vote showed less support than the overall sample at 43:19 but swing voters were slightly more in favour than the group as a whole at 52:11.