Focus group testing of Rebecca Long-Bailey and Angela Rayner was only about how to get message across, party says

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Labour has denied that a poll conducted in the north of England to test the appeal of frontbenchers was about finding Jeremy Corbyn’s successor.

The Sunday Times obtained a leaked copy of internal party polling that used a focus group testing voters’ reactions to shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey and shadow education secretary Angela Rayner.

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The pair are regarded as rising stars of the 2015 intake of MPs from the left of the party, and Long-Bailey was promoted in last week’s reshuffle, after four shadow ministers resigned over Corbyn’s stance on Brexit.

According to the Sunday Times, the focus group responses to Rayner were “overwhelmingly negative”.

The MP for Ashton-under-Lyne was judged by the group to be “not likeable”, a “bit charity shop-looking” and “weird”, with one participant suggesting voters would not take her seriously, the newspaper reported.

Long-Bailey, a former lawyer and the MP for Salford and Eccles, was viewed more favourably with the group describing her as “passionate”, “genuine”, “sincere” and “very smart”, although some saw her as “aggressive” and “rough”.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, denied that the party was vetting potential leadership successors. “I only saw this story last night,” he said. “People tell me that isn’t the case, it wasn’t road-testing leadership candidates. There was a range of shadow cabinet members that were so-called road tested. This is what we do in our normal run of political consultations.

“I’m just slightly relieved they weren’t road-testing me on the document that was leaked to the newspaper.”

When asked about a recent YouGov poll that suggested Corbyn’s favourability ratings were plummeting, Watson added: “This is not the time for a leadership election. He got a second mandate from our members last year, he is now the established leader of the Labour party.

“It is his duty to lead the official opposition through a period of unprecedented economic uncertainty and he will be tested. He has to explain those and he has to improve on them and he’s well aware of that.

“I do talk about the issues that I think Labour needs to address if we are going to narrow that poll gap.”

A Labour source told the Guardian: “In common with all political parties, Labour conducts polling to get a clearer picture of views in different parts of the country.

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“Polling of northern voters was about how best to get Labour’s message across in the north and has nothing at all to do with ‘succession planning’.”

The source added that similar exercises would be carried out in other parts of the country.

Corbyn’s team had already been forced to deny rumours last week that the 67-year-old leader had named a date for his departure.

Voters also appear to have been sceptical about Corbyn’s appeal in the focus group. The group, organised by Labour’s pollster, BMG Research, found Corbyn to be “boring”, said he appeared “fed up” and “looks like a scruffy schoolkid”.

The Labour source refused to comment on suggestions that the polling also pointed to Labour being reduced to 198 seats to the Tories’ 361 if a general election were held in the coming months.