As always with opinion polls, it’s all about the interpretation that’s put on top of the figures. So it was yet again with remainiac group Best for Britain, a serial offender in the dodgy polling stakes, who dropped an ‘MRP’ over the weekend claiming: “every constituency in Britain thinks the Government should prioritise trade with the EU over the USA and other countries”. Who’s funding this rubbish?
Leaving aside the dubious methodological approach for such an investigation, the other way of interpreting the poll’s findings is that more than half of those polled identified countries other than those in the EU or ‘don’t know’ as their top trading preference. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for Starmer’s renegotiation, which the poll is intended to prop up…
Indeed, in the majority of constituencies (577 out of 650) there was no majority preference for the EU as a top trading partner, with less than 50% of those polled supporting the idea. There’s an interesting distribution map though for the margin of preference for EU trade over the USA, revealing that SNP, Labour and Lib Dem hotspots in Scotland are the most America-hating areas when it comes to trade. Better not tell those nats that Scotland’s trade with the rest of the UK is worth three times the value of its trade with the EU…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”