Half of voters think hung parliament bad for economy

This is higher among women than men ( 52% vs. 42%) and older people ( 60% for over 65’s and 33% for 18- to 24-year-olds). Overall, 81% said they thought no party will get a majority.

The TNS Public Opinion Monitor also showed that women are more pessimistic about the current state of the economy. When asked about the economy almost a third of women ( 32%) said their household is finding it harder to meet their budget than a year ago – only one in five men ( 22%) said the same.

Men also tend to be more positive about the wider economy; almost a third ( 31%) said the economy will be doing better than a year ago compared with a quarter ( 24%) of women.

The Green Party is seen as running the most positive campaign with a third of those that have been paying attention to the campaigns ( 33%) saying their campaign is ‘focused on the positives of their own party’.  Indeed, they are the only party where more people thought that they are running a positive campaign than a negative one (+5%).

When asked whether the overall campaigns have led to people being more or less likely to vote for specific parties, no party has ended up with a net gain in supporters. However, the Liberal Democrats have fared the worst, with a 24% deficit ( 6% vs. 30%). The party which fared the best were the Conservatives, with only 5% more people saying that they are less likely to vote for them than those saying more likely ( 24% v. 19%). For Labour 19% said they are now more likely to vote for them whereas 29% said they had been put off.

Jamie Willard, director at TNS UK said: “This research reveals that voters are finding the campaigns run by the political parties negative and uninspiring. This demonstrates that cynicism and a lack of trust in the political process remains high. With the possibility of coalition negotiations increasingly likely, the real excitement may start after polling day.”

Public Opinion Monitor: TNS Omnibus interviewed a representative sample of 1,199 adults in Great Britain between the 16^th and 20^th April 2015. All interviews were conducted as online self-completion – detailed tables are available here.The TNS Omnibus uses the Lightspeed Research access panel as its sample source.