More poll woes for the coalition

You certainly don’t need polls to tell you that it’s been a bad couple of weeks for the coalition – but we’ve got them anyway. Pete noted on Sunday that the government’s approval rating was at its lowest since the start of this Parliament, and it’s actually dropped another three points since. Today’s YouGov poll finds just 21 per cent giving the coalition the thumbs up, against 64 per cent who disapprove. That’s almost identical to the 20-64 split YouGov found for Gordon Brown’s Labour government back in January 2010. The below graph shows how public opinion has turned against the coalition over the past two years:

Today’s poll also updates another important indicator: whom the public blames for the cuts we face. This tests one of the government’s key lines: that it is simply ‘clearing up the mess left by Labour’. Up ‘til now, that line’s held up pretty well, and there has been no real shift of the blame from Labour to the coalition since the end of 2010. But today’s figures show 28 per cent blame the coalition most – up from 25 per cent just before Osborne unveiled his Budget:

The gap between those ‘Labour’ and ‘Coalition’ lines is beginning to narrow. If they cross, then the coalition’s PR troubles would really kick in.