Cameron's legacy: praise for gay marriage stand – and for EU referendum

July 14, 2016, 4:30 PM GMT+0

The British public tend to think that life in the UK is worse than six years ago, but are split on whether David Cameron has done a good job as Prime Minister.

David Cameron’s reign as Prime Minister came to an abrupt end yesterday, the most prominent political casualty of the fallout of the EU referendum result on the 23rd of June. YouGov research carried out over the last few days offers a snapshot on how the British public view his time as Prime Minister, and how they view his legacy.

When asked whether life in Britain is better or worse than 6 years ago, the public tend to think life in the UK is worse overall (50%), just 23% think it is better.

2015 Conservative voters (47%) are the most likely to think life is better than in 2010, Lib Dem (18%) and UKIP (17%) voters are a lot less likely to think life is better and just 8% of Labour voters think life is better in the UK since Cameron became PM.

When asked about David Cameron’s role as Prime Minister, the results are more mixed. Exactly 46% think he has done a good job, and 46% think he has done a bad job.

Again people’s opinion vary greatly upon who they vote for. Conservative voters are by far the most favourable with 82% think he has done a good job,and 12% saying he’s done a bad job. Labour voters are far less impressed, just 20% think he’s done a good job and 74% a bad job. Lib Dem marginally think he’s done well (50%-47%) and UKIP voters break 37%-60%.

There is no consensus on David Cameron’s biggest success as Prime Minister. The narrow winner is legalising gay marriage (19%), followed by holding the EU referendum (17%) and bringing down the deficit (12%).

Cameron’s biggest success varies according to how people vote, and gay marriage actually only comes top as a result of support from Lib Dem (28%) and Labour (34%) voters. His biggest successes according Conservative voters is holding the EU referendum (25%) and bringing down the deficit (26%).

UKIP voters are clear on the best thing about Cameron’s premiership: 52% say holding the EU referendum was his biggest success.

Image: PA

See the full results here