ITV News poll finds more than half of Britons think NHS should be government's biggest priority

Monday 23 March 2015 at 4:02pm

The NHS was most important for more than half of those polled Credit: PA

The NHS, immigration and the economy should be the three main priorities for the government ahead of the upcoming election, according to a new ITV News poll.

More than a half (53%) of the 2,011 people questioned in the ComRes/ITV News survey believed that managing the NHS should be the government's most important priority.

Meanwhile, 45% favoured controlling immigration and 40% believed that growing the economy for everyone in Britain was the main priority.

A quarter (26%) of the 2,011 people surveyed said that making the welfare system fairer should be one of the government's biggest priorities while a fifth said the same for providing adequate care for the elderly (21%), improving housing affordability (21%) or redefining Britain’s relationship with the EU (20%).

Meanwhile, the poll also showed that trust in the Conservatives to promote the UK economy has increased since the Budget but voters don't think the benefits will be felt by all.

Economy and the deficit

The ComRes/ITV News survey of 2,013 British adults found 39% backed the Tories to promote economic growth, an increase of 5%, while 24% favoured Labour, 8% Ukip and 5% the Liberal Democrats.

Results also showed that 44% of those questioned agreed that the Tories were still the most trusted to reduce the government's budget deficit, more than twice those who backed Ed Miliband's party (20%). Ukip were third on 5% with the Liberal Democrats on 4% while more than a quarter (27%) didn't know.

Cost of living

One of Labour's leading campaigns in the past few months has been on the cost of living and their popularity on this issue has risen from six months ago; 32% believe the party would be best one to keep down the cost of everyday items, such as food, energy and travel, an increase of 4% on the previous month.

However, the Conservatives' standing on this rose too, up five points to 24%, and the Lib Dems also saw an increase of 2% to 7%.

NHS

Labour are still viewed as the party best suited to managing the NHS though. Their share of support on this rose by 7% to 36% to keep the party 13% ahead of the Tories.

Housing

Labour were also deemed most likely to improve housing affordability (36%) compared to the Conservatives on 23% and the LibDems on 7%.

Immigration

Ukip were still favourites on keeping a grip on immigration (38%) in spite of a 5% drop and 4% and 3% rises for the Conservatives (20%) and Labour (15%) respectively.