Vince Cable tops Tim Farron’s best leadership ratings
The scale of the recovery facing the Liberal Democrats means that some of the important landmarks for the party to pass may not at first seem reasons to celebrate, but when put in the context they are.
So it is with the latest leadership polling from YouGov, which finds 23% have a favourable view of Vince Cable and 38% a negative view. Both the 23% favourable rating and the 15% net negative rating are significant improvements on mid-August ratings for Vince Cable. They are also both better than Tim Farron ever scored during his time as party leader.*
That’s promising early days, especially as those net ratings are better than Theresa May and only one point worse than Jeremy Corbyn.
* Results on leadership ratings questions vary depending on their wording. For consistent trends, therefore, you have to compare questions with exactly the same wording. This comparison is based on the wording YouGov has used in this Parliament and in some, though not all, of its leadership polls in the last Parliament.
Cable has a lot of leverage with the news media and he uses it well. There’s always a place for the “wise and sensible” point of view.
Tim Farron did a good job at a difficult time – not least building the platform to get Sir Vince back into parliament.
Amusing to see Jacob Rees-Mogg tackling the “committed believer” issue as an early step in his leadership manouvers. I’m sure Tim could give him some good advice.
He needs to keep talking sense.
Vince Cable has always seemed to me to be a voice of sanity in the crazy arena of world politics. He is worldly wise, careful in voicing his opinions, and has a good track record as a deep thinker. The Conservatives and Labour will have trouble trying to undermine him; which is what they try to do to other leaders.