London Evening Standard
Nigel Farage suffered a double blow yesterday as Londoners named him the party leader they would least like to celebrate New Year with, and Ukip dropped two points in the latest poll.
Despite his man-of-the-people image, the YouGov survey found that 31% of Londoners put him top of the list of leaders they would not want to see in 2015 with, higher than Labour’s Ed Miliband on 25% and Conservative David Cameron on 19%.
Women, in particular, were against the idea of partying with Farage on December 31. But the Ukip leader need not worry about being branded “Nigel-no-mates”. When Londoners were asked a second question, about which political leader they would most — rather than least — like to celebrate New Year with, Farage came joint second with Miliband, on 16 %.
Party king was Cameron, on 18%, with women noticeably more eager to be in his company than men, by 21% to 16%.
The opposite was even more starkly the case for Farage, with just 12% of women warming to the idea of popping champagne corks with him compared with 20% of men, which was almost identical to the equivalent figures for Miliband.
“2015 could be a very big year for Nigel Farage yet Londoners do not want to see in the New Year with him, despite his ‘bloke down the pub’ image of revelry and bonhomie,” said Nicola Wildash of YouGov.
“However, this poll shows that he really is a ‘Marmite’ figure as he is also joint-second when it comes to the party chief people in the capital would like to party with on December 31.”
As for Nick Clegg, Londoners do not appear to have strong feelings either way on raising a glass with him. Just 9% named him as the leader they would most like to spend New Year with, and 6% as the “least”.
The YouGov London poll showed that support for Ukip has fallen from 11% in November to 9% — its lowest level since August. Labour is down one point to 41%, the Conservatives are unchanged on 33%, the LibDems remain on 9%, and the Greens have gone up two points to 6%.
YouGov interviewed 1,385 adults in London between December 15 and 18.
A website that dismisses human rights activists imprisoned abroad as “loud-mouthed idiots chained to radiators” is funded by one of Ukip’s biggest donors.
LibLabCon.com is backed by insurance entrepreneur Arron Banks, according to the Financial Times. The website calls Labour’s Chuka Umunna “shadow spokesman for tokenism”.