Of the 528 votes cast in the latest poll, which asked readers how they would be voting on 8 June, more than half pledged their allegiance to the blues, with 53% backing the Tories, while less than a quarter backed Jeremy Corbyn’s reds with Labour securing 24% of the print vote.
The PrintWeek result compares to around 47% and 28% leaning towards Conservative and Labour respectively in the latest national polls, both outcomes suggesting that the current media hype pointing towards a landslide victory for Theresa May has good grounds. That and the fact she called a snap election at a time when she was smashing the polls in the leadership popularity ratings.
Away from the frontrunners 8% of our voters stated that they intend to vote Lib Dem with 5% and 2% backing the as-good-as defunct UKIP and Green parties respectively.
Nationally the latest national poll information gathered on 7 May shows 9% of voters favouring Lib Dem with UKIP and the Greens taking around 6% and 3% of the vote respectively.
Northern Irish parties, Paid Cymru and the Scottish National Party were backed by 0.5%, 0.8% and 1.9% of PrintWeek poll voters.
BPIF chief executive Charles Jarrold said the PrintWeek poll reinforced trends seen by the organisation: "Namely that print is a diverse industry, and tends to reflect national inclinations, whether that's on attitudes to Brexit, or voting intentions such as shown here," he explained.
Jarrold said that now Article 50 had been triggered, members were focusing on their businesses, and the issues that directly affect them such as input prices, cost pressures, and access to skilled labour. "Despite the considerable level of investment in apprenticeship training, skills remains a perennial concern," he added, saying that the BPIF would be asking the new government to back print.
"Our industry wants to see a government that's committed to helping our members succeed in the medium term, and that means policies that support productivity, profitability, and promoting the uniquely effective communication medium that is print.
"To that end we're asking prospective MPs to engage with our sector and pledge their support for print. Then, once the election process is complete, we'll send all MPs and Lords copies of the new Priorities for Print, identifying actions to help in each of these three areas: productivity, profitability and promoting the role of print," Jarrold said.
