Further poll finds Lib Dem members would prefer a partnership with Labour over Tories

After our story yesterday, in which we reported that it looked like delegates at the Lib Dem conference preferred the idea of a coalition with Labour over the Tories, results from a survey suggest the same.

The survey in question was conducted by Lib Dem Voice – they asked 586 party members about possible outcomes for the next general election. They found that if there’s a hung parliament next year, 69% of those asked want the Lib Dems to be in government after May 2015. 51% of these people would rather see a partnership with Labour – either through a coalition (33%), or a’supply and confidence’ arrangement (18% – which means voting on an issue-by-issue basis).

Meanwhile, only 18% would want their party to once again go into some kind of partnership with the Tories – 14% of these people would opt for  another coalition, while only 4% would favour ‘confidence and supply’.

Stephen Tall, Co-Editor of Lib Dem Voice, Stephen Tall has said these results shows that “there’s no doubt who party members would prefer to deal with – more than three times as many would prefer a deal with Labour than with the Tories.”

However, forming a coalition doesn’t seem to be at the forefront of Miliband’s, or any of the Labour leadership’s minds – and it’s most probably not the first thing on the agenda for party members and activists.

Regardless of what the Lib Dems would prefer, for Labour, the focus is as it should be: on winning a majority next May.