Nearly half of the public think the Conservatives’ attacks on Miliband prove they’re the ‘nasty party’, poll finds

Nearly half of the public think that the Conservatives’ attacks on Ed Miliband have proven that they’re the ‘nasty party’, a poll has found.

Following Defence Secretary Michael Fallon’s comments that Miliband had “stabbed his brother in the back” over the Labour leadership, ComRes conducted a poll on behalf of ITV to find out how this affected the public’s view of the Tories. The answer is: not well. 46% said it showed they were the ‘nasty party’.

Meanwhile, 51% directly disagreed with Fallon, saying Miliband’s decision to run again his brother (and his subsequent victory in the leadership contest) did not show he had bad moral character. Only 23% thought Fallon was on the right lines with his comments.

When it came to the party campaigns overall, 30% thought the Conservatives’ campaign was “dirty” and 20% thought the same for Labour. Neither party comes out particularly well on this one, as 1/3 of those asked thought both campaigns were ‘boring’ and ‘negative’ while a relatively small proportion of people thought either campaign was inspiring (17% for Labour and 14% for the Tories).

Meanwhile the top three election issues, according to this poll, are managing the NHS (49%), controlling immigration 44% and keeping down the cost of everyday items (23%).

When it comes to trusting the parties on the top election issue – the NHS – 37% thought Labour would do best, while the Tories trail 13 points behind them on 24%.

Labour and the Tories are, more-or-less, level pegging on controlling immigration (at 17% and 18% respectively) – unsurprisingly UKIP are seen as the most trusted on this issue with 39%.

However, on a number of election issues Labour are viewed as more reliable than Tories:

Yet, it’s not all good news. When it comes to the following three issues,the Conservatives are seen as more trusted than Labour:

reducing the Government deficit (Lab 21%, Tories 43%), reducing crime and anti-social behaviour (Lab 23%, Tories 31%) and redefining the country’s relationship with the EU (Lab 21%, Tories 26%)

Labour do still have some way to go to convince the public that they’re more credible  than the Tories on these issues. However, they’re seen as more reliable on double the amount of topics than Cameron and co.

And from all of this, it’s quite clear which party is considered the fairest…