Search icon

Politics

26th Sep 2018

Half of Labour voters ‘haven’t heard of’ John McDonnell

Don't worry, he's only the shadow chancellor of the exchequer

Oli Dugmore

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 24: Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell addresses delegates in the Exhibition Centre Liverpool during day two of the annual Labour Party conference on September 24, 2018 in Liverpool, England. Labour's official slogan for the conference is ?Rebuilding Britain, for the many, not the few?. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Don’t worry, he’s only the shadow chancellor of the exchequer

47 per cent of Labour voters say they ‘have not heard of’ shadow chancellor of the exchequer John McDonnell.

A YouGov poll for The Times revealed that many of the party’s voters do not recognise the names of their senior politicians. 46 per cent said they have not heard of Tom Watson, 56 per cent responded had the same response to Keir Starmer, 48 per cent to Shami Chakrabarti and 80 per cent to Barry Gardiner.

The same percentage of voters said they had heard of McDonnell as hadn’t – 47 per cent.

In fact, a higher proportion of Lib Dems recognise the shadow chancellor’s name than Labour voters (69 per cent). A trend consistent across most members of the shadow cabinet.

3 per cent of young voters (aged 18-24) said they had not heard of Jeremy Corbyn.

These are the percentages of voting age adults, not just the Labour party, who responded “I have not heard of them” to each politician:

  • Barry Gardiner = 87%
  • Angela Rayner = 66%
  • Keir Starmer = 58%
  • John McDonnell = 50%
  • Tom Watson = 49%
  • Emily Thornberry = 49%
  • Shami Chakrabarti = 47%

Fancy a stint on Strictly Come Dancing, Macca? It worked for Ed Balls.