Red Ed? Poll shows Miliband closer to the centre than Cameron

John Prescott may have called Ed Miliband “Red Ed” on the Today Programme this morning, but a new poll today shows the public think Ed Miliband is closer to the centre than David Cameron. A survey conducted for YouGov for The Times Red Box shows that Miliband is seen as more centrist than he was when first elected leader, whilst Cameron is seen as more right-wing than when first elected leader.

For each of the party leaders, and their parties, YouGov asked the public where they would be on a scale from “very left” (-100) to “very right” (+100). (Ignore the fact that Left is minus and Right is positive if you can…).

Miliband was seen as -45 left when he became leader, and is now -35 left. Cameron meanwhile is now +46 right – far further from the centre than Miliband, and further to the right than the electorate have ever believed Miliband was to the left. Here’s how the two leaders scores have changed over time (chart courtesy of The Times):

Of course there is another way of reading this – you could argue that Miliband had Labour well into the 40s in voting intention polling when he was considered further to the right, yet as he’s perceived to be closer to the centre Labour’s poll lead had fallen away. Yet without further polling it’s impossible to know if this is causation or correlation.

However you could also argue that politics is incredibly polarised and that neither leader is anywhere close to the centre.

What is clear though is that if the Tory plan is to paint Miliband as a “red” radical, it isn’t working – the public think the PM is more extreme…