Yahoo News Not even Lib Dem voters have heard of the Lib Dem leadership candidates
The vast majority of voters have not heard of the two contenders vying to be leader of the Liberal Democrats, according to a YouGov survey.
Even people who plan to vote Lib Dem in the next general election are unlikely to be familiar with the contenders to take over the party.
Lib Dem leader Vince Cable is standing down after two years at the helm and the two main contenders are Jo Swinson and Sir Ed Davey.
Pollsters showed pictures of the two candidates to a panel of 1,668 voters online and asked them to name them.
Only six % of the population as a whole were able to name Sir Ed Davey and eight % could name Jo Swinson.
Among people who voted Liberal Democrats, the figures were 12 % and 20 % respectively.
Only 8% of the public can identify Lib Dem leadership frontrunner Jo Swinson, and 6% fellow candidate Ed Davey. Even among Lib Dem voters recognition remains low, with just 20% able to correctly identify Swinson and 12% Davey https://t.co/p4zdzkTqvI pic.twitter.com/EqufQmNM4a
— YouGov (@YouGov) July 3, 2019
The number of people between the age of 18 and 24 who were able to name Sir Ed was zero.
Ms Swinson has been Sir Vince’s deputy for two years and speaks for the party on foreign affairs.
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She has also served in government as a business minister in the coalition government until 2015.
She has spoken passionately about stopping a no-deal Brexit, claiming it would be like “planning for your house to burn down”.
Sir Ed has described a no-deal Brexit as the “nuclear option” and has even pushed for a vote of no confidence in the government to prevent such an outcome.
The result of the postal ballot for the liberal democrat leadership contest will be announced on July 23.
The party gained more than 700 councillors in last month’s English local elections and came second in May’s European elections.
Another YouGov poll last week found the Lib Dems could win a general election if the Tories fail to deliver Brexit and Labour stays on its current course.
People were asked to imagine Brexit had not been delivered and then asked: “What happens if Corbyn holds to his current position of delivering an alternative Brexit?”
The hypothetical survey showed that if Jeremy Corbyn retained his current stance on Brexit, Labour would retain 38 percent of its 2017 voters, with around 39 percent moving to the Lib Dems.
The Lib Dems currently have 12 MPs, including newest recruit Chuka Umunna who defected from Change UK, after initially defecting from Labour.
