The more people see of her the less they like what they see - according to the polls. May syndrome I belive it's called.
The Times view on Jo Swinson’s election hopes: Lib Dem Limbo
Jo Swinson is struggling to win the confidence of centrist voters
The Liberal Democrats are in the process of missing an open goal. Centrists and Europhiles are tempted to desert the two main parties and are looking for a new home. Remainers feel they have been abandoned by the Tories yet cannot trust a Labour leader who continues to equivocate over his support for Brexit.
The Lib Dems entered this election season flushed with success from gains made in the local and European elections earlier this year, and their numbers have been swollen by nine defecting MPs from other parties along with a swathe of new members. Yet momentum is slipping. A YouGov poll for
The Times puts their support at 15 per cent, down from a peak of 24 per cent in May. Ms Swinson needs her manifesto, released yesterday, to give her a fillip.
Of course Lib Dem fortunes could still change. It’s early in the campaign and there are 21 days in which to turn matters around. There are some reports that their voters are more concentrated than in past years. If so, a lower share of the vote could still deliver a greater number of seats. And parts of the manifesto may help. It includes ambitious green targets that will appeal to the young, including making the UK carbon neutral by 2045, adopting electric cars and investing in public transport.
Like everyone else the Lib Dems are offering juicy state handouts, including 35 hours a week of free childcare, 20,000 new teachers and an extra £7 billion a year for the NHS and social care. And their plans to fund this are more credible than Labour’s. The main source of income would be a £50 billion “Remain bonus”, a claim that the Institute for Fiscal Studies called “within the range of plausible estimates” for the extra growth resulting from remaining in the EU.
They have, however, a lot of ground to make up. A large part of the problem lies with their leader, who they have placed at the centre of their campaign, much as Theresa May was at the front of the Tories 2017 campaign.
Ms Swinson is now far better known since becoming leader in July but according to polls, the more voters see of her the less they like her. In mid November only about a quarter had a positive view while half had a negative one. By contrast, 43 per cent were favourable towards Boris Johnson and half unfavourable. Ms Swinson is doing better than Jeremy Corbyn, who was favoured by a quarter of voters and disliked by two thirds. But as the smaller party, Lib Dem chances depend far more on their leader capturing public imagination.
Even had Ms Swinson participated in the ITV debate there are few signs she would have sparked an equivalent to the “Cleggmania” after Nick Clegg’s performances in 2010. The main result of her interview, which followed the main debate on Tuesday evening, was criticism over her “glib” and unconvincing assertion that she was ready to use nuclear weapons.
It may also be true that the party is suffering from its policy to revoke Article 50. While clearly making it a Remainer party, some voters will understandably see this as undemocratic. Another problem is her refusal to be clear about what she would do in the case of a hung parliament.
Ms Swinson claims she can become prime minister but much more likely is that she could prop up a government led by Jeremy Corbyn and the Scottish Nationalists, however much she denies it. That way she could at least get another referendum. The truth is that the Lib Dems have a long way to go to recover the confidence of the nation.
