Research by Sporting Index reveals
Research by Sporting Index has found that 52 per cent of people in Britain do not know who the leader of the Liberal Democrats is.
Tim Farron was elected as leader of the Lib Dems in July 2015 following Nick Clegg’s resignation, and he has spearheaded the party’s campaign in this year’s snap election. However, following a survey taken by pollsters Opinium, results show that over half of the 2,000 people surveyed couldn’t name who the leader of the major political party is.
The results are clearly worrying for Tim Farron, who is eager to stamp his authority on this year’s general election despite currently being predicted by Sporting Index’s traders to secure just 16 seats – down from 31 since the spread betting firm’s markets opened in April.
The shocking results don’t stop at the Lib Dem party leader either, as the research also highlighted that nearly one in five people in Britain don’t know Theresa May is the leader of the Conservative party and, more shockingly, one in five Brits between 25 and 34 years old also don’t know who the UK Prime Minister is.
Men turned out to be the worst for identifying Theresa May as the leader of the Conservatives – who are tipped to win the election comfortably and secure 381 seats by Sporting Index’s traders. Nearly one in five men (19 per cent) were not able to name who the Prime Minister of the country is when questioned by Opinium.
Those who were surveyed were also shown several seven pictures and were asked to identify which one was Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, which revealed that over one in ten (12 per cent) couldn’t correctly identify the Labour leader.
The survey results also come after British film director Guy Ritchie recently caused outrage by admitting he didn’t recognise cardboard cut outs of election hopefuls Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn. This has caused people to question the country’s political awareness in the lead up to the first general election since Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, with the nation set to go to the polls in just over two weeks.
Ed Fulton, political trading spokesman for Sporting Index, said: “With the general election just a few weeks away, our research makes for interesting reading – and its bad news for the leaders of the political parties.
“Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn and Tim Farron have spent big to make sure they are as recognisable as possible, but according to our research, a large percentage of the population still don’t know who they are. This could indicate an apathy from the British public to politics, or that the likes of May, Corbyn and Farron simply aren’t charismatic enough to be remembered.
“There’s still time before we go to the polls, and all three will have to knock on a few more doors to make sure they’re not forgotten about on June 8.”
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