Ministers slated as poll suggests 82% of Islanders think Jersey’s going in the wrong direction

Tuesday 01 March 2016

The Council of Ministers might be looking for new jobs if an election was held tomorrow, after a damning opinion poll recorded disapproval ratings of up to 62% for the top ministerial team.

The online poll – to which 1,369 people responded – saw 82% of respondents say Jersey is going in the wrong direction, and 62% disapproval ratings for Treasury Minister Alan Maclean.

That figure is twice as bad as recent opinion polling on beleaguered Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Just three of 16 politicians tested in the independet change.je online survey recorded favourable ratings – St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft was easily the most popular, with a +26% favourability, followed by Reform Jersey’s Sam Mezec (+6%) and Home Affairs Minister Kristina Moore (+1%).

At the other end of the spectrum, Treasury Minister Alan Maclean scored a net unfavourability rating of  -62.71%, Assistant Chief Minister Philip Ozouf scored -62.48%, and Infrastructure Minister Eddie Noel scored -49.48%.

Even Chief Minister Ian Gorst, who easily topped the poll in the October 2014 Senatorial election and who was the first ever Chief Minister to retain the job, to stand unopposed and to secure his full slate of ministerial nominations, scored a -48% unfavourability rating.

 The survey was run over a week-long period by independent political campaign group change.je, who say that they will repeat it every six months to monitor trends as ministers’ ratings go up and down. A full breakdown and analysis of the results features as the lead story in this month’s edition of free business magazine Connect – and you can read it here.