A significant proportion of British adults (36%) say that David Cameron has got ‘the balance between modernising the Conservative party and retaining what was important ‘about right’ since he became leader five years ago. This is more than those who think he ‘hasn’t done enough to modernise the party’ (30%) and much more than those who think he has ‘abandoned too many traditional Conservative policies’ (11%).
Significantly for Cameron, 68% of Conservative supporters say that they think he has ‘got the balance about right’ between modernising the party and retaining what is important; only 13% say he has abandoned key issues such as immigration, Europe and tax cuts. Unsurprisingly, Labour supporters feel that Cameron ‘hasn’t done enough to modernise’ the party, and that ‘under the surface it is the same old Conservative party’. Lib Dem supporters, whose party is in Coalition with Cameron, are more or less split down the middle, with 39% feeling that he hasn’t done enough to modernise, versus 36% who feel he has abandoned the ‘important issues’.
Men are also more likely to feel that Cameron hasn’t modernised enough (35% compared to 26% of women), while over 55s are twice as likely to think he has abandoned the key issues than their 18-24 year-old counterparts (14% compared to 7%).
