A little while ago Ed Miliband’s rating among voters was only 1% higher than Nick Clegg. Only 22% saw him as a good leader of the Labour Party. His approval rating even before the lacklustre performance in the elections was only 24%. An earlier YouGov poll placed Clegg and Ed Miliband on an equal footing with the public seeing both as out of their depth.
A new ICM poll today reveals those poor ratings are not a blip. The ICM poll says Ed Miliband is now even more unpopular than Nick Clegg. Who would have though that was even possible? The public really do not like the younger Miliband.
The poll gave Ed Miliband a rating of minus 21, down eight points since March and a point behind Clegg who is possibly the most unpopular politician in Britain. Yes David Cameron hit a new low of minus five, but he is still 16 points ahead of his Ed and Nick and laughing it up.
The ICM poll follows a ComRes poll for the IoS and the Sunday Mirror that gave the Labour leader a –27% approval rating, down 10 points on a similar poll last month.
The good news is that Labour is still ahead in the polls, but only just. Labour is on 39% only two points ahead of the Tories on 37. Although the ComRes poll gives the party a higher lead.
At the weekend in an IoS interview Ed Miliband revealed he had taken advice on leadership from Tony Blair. I imagine he told Blair quite clearly that all this New Labour nonsense has got to stop.
Ed Miliband needs help and while there is no going back for David Miliband, no possible leadership challenge, it certainly feels like time he got off the backbenches and buried the hatchet (in the opposition) and made the best of the situation. It has been nine months now and his brother is sinking, poll by poll.
