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Polls show Cameron out of step with public on immigration

On the day that David Cameron puts immigration at the heart of political debate, two polling organisations show that he’s out of step with the public.  Ipsos-MORI polling shows that race and immigrations is mentioned this month as an “important issue facing Britain today” by only 17% of the public, 9% down on last month and at its lowest level for nine years. It comes well below the economy (on 62%) as well as unemployment, defence/foreign affairs/terrorism, crime/law and order and the NHS (although ironically the NHS is also low at 20% having been reduced under Gordon Brown to the lowest level of concern since 1985).

An ongoing independent poll of 143,000 working people being conducted for Unite, Britain’s biggest union, also shows that immigration is ranked last of 10 issues of concern. Working people’s top worries are money problems, the rising cost of living, cuts to public services, stress, education and housing..

Tens of thousands of responses have been analysed and ranked by independent polling company, Mass1, which reports that the top ten concerns for workers are:

  1. Money worries
  2. Cuts to council services and NHS services
  3. Rising cost of living
  4. Stress
  5. Education
  6. Housing
  7. Job security
  8. Coalition government
  9. Defence
  10. Immigration

Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, said:

David Cameron is stoking up fears over immigration to divert attention away from people’s real fears about the economy and public services to give his government some cover ahead of the council elections.

Tens of thousands of working people surveyed for Unite show that their main worries can be traced back to the impact the government’s economic policies are having on this country. Working people are worried because they are struggling to make ends meet, they are seeing the cost of food and fuel going up, while their public services are being cut.

Immigration is in fact ranked last as a concern with the coalition government ranked as a greater threat to people’s living standards.”

The poll is based on responses from some 143,000 people — not all Unite members — polled by Mass1, an independent research organisation in an ongoing polling exercise that began in December 2010. The respondents are spread across the population centres of the UK.

One Comment

  1. Tory dog whistle.

    We’re in trouble over the NHS and the cuts generally, we don’t know where we are going in Lybia… it’s a mess, we’re getting criticised on all sides.. what to do?

    oh, I know, immigration..

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