NHS cash gets public thumbs-up - just as Labour knew it would

The private polling conducted before a leader’s speech is as critical as the opinion polling afterwards

Don Brind

It will have come as no surprise to Ed Miliband that the first polling on his Labour conference speech showed heavy public support for his signature policy – extra NHS spending on more midwives, nurses and care workers to be paid for by taxes on tobacco companies, a mansion tax and closing tax loopholes.

The fact is he wouldn’t have made the NHS pledge unless public polling and the Labour Party’s own voter research didn’t show that that it was a powerful reason for people to vote Labour.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
is a former BBC lobby correspondent and Labour press officer who is watching the polls for The Week in the run-up to the 2015 election.