Lord Ashcroft Polls

By Lord Ashcroft

John Kasich is the Governor of Ohio, and won over 4 million votes in the battle to become the Republican nominee for President two years ago. He declined to endorse Donald Trump, and even decided not to attend the party’s nominating convention despite it being held in his own state. At the Governor’s Mansion in Columbus, Ohio’s capital, I asked him about his reflections on the bruising encounter that was the 2016 Republican primary.

“Well I don’t think it’s a very good way to pick President is to begin with (more…)

By Lord Ashcroft

In the latest edition of the Ashcroft in America podcast, Ohio Governor John Kasich talks to me about the bruising 2016 Republican primary, his criticisms of President Trump, the future of his party and his plans for 2020.

By Lord Ashcroft

Our US focus group tour takes us to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, where we listen to voters discuss the Saudis, the Honduras caravan, President Trump and his attitude to women, potential alternative presidential candidates, divisions in American politics, and how to vote in next month’s midterm elections.

By Lord Ashcroft

In the latest Ashcroft in America podcast Steve Hilton, Fox News host and former Downing Street adviser, talks to me about Brexit, Trump and the different effects of populism in Britain and America, and offers some stern advice to Mrs. May.

By Lord Ashcroft

Next month’s midterm elections could change the balance of power in Washington. As before the presidential election two years ago, I’m conducting focus groups in key districts across the United States to listen to real voters as they weigh up their decision: whether to keep the Republicans in full control, or whether to put the Democrats in charge of the House of Representatives and even the Senate. (You can hear what they have to say – as well as the thoughts of the politicians and commentators I am interviewing along the way – in my regular Ashcroft in America podcast). Our tour began in New Hampshire, where we spoke to primary voters from both parties, and New Jersey, where we heard from independents who had backed the Republicans in the last Congressional elections, and people had voted only reluctantly for Donald Trump (more…)

By Lord Ashcroft

In my first round of pre-midterm election focus groups, voters in New Hampshire and New Jersey weigh up next month’s decision, and reflect on Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation, the Trump presidency, and potential candidates for 2020.

By Lord Ashcroft

Ahead of my new round of research listening to voters across the US, I speak to former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman and James Pindell of the Boston Globe about the midterms, the future of the two parties, the likelihood of a challenge to President Trump in the Republican primaries and the prospect of a third-party candidate.

By Lord Ashcroft

In my latest podcast I talk to MSNBC political analyst Elise Jordan about my Ashcroft in America research looking at next month’s midterm elections in the US, and about my new book White Flag? An examination of the UK’s defence capability.

By Lord Ashcroft

I have often thought of creating a game of Political Focus Group Bingo (for which the market would be admittedly niche) in which the players would tick off words and phrases on their cards as they were uttered by the focus group participants. One of these would be ‘Australian-style points system’ – a locution you will hear more often than not once the subject of immigration has come up, as it has in practically every group I have done since I began my research four general elections ago. Until the referendum the point was not so much that people thought the volume of immigration was too high (though many did) as that we did not have control over it or the ability to decide who could and could not come in (more…)

By Lord Ashcroft

Towards the end of a fringe meeting yesterday, I half expected to hear a band strike up Rule Britannia. It was an ungodly hour – before 9am on a Monday – and Gavin Williamson had spent 45 minutes or so choosing his words very carefully. At a ConservativeHome event to mark the publication of my new book on the state of the UK’s armed forces, White Flag?, he spied traps everywhere, skilfully sidestepping a series of awkward questions with classic Cabinet Minister-style platitudes.

Did cuts to the armed forces in 2010 go too far? He wasn’t going to admit that! Were government officials twitchy about his decision to send warships to the South China Sea? Best not risk upsetting civil servants by saying anything about that. Wasn’t the Treasury really lily-livered, privately warning him not to risk annoying the Chinese? Williamson wasn’t going there. No way was he risking a headline suggesting he was having a pop at Philip Hammond.

Asked about the UK’s place in the world however, and there was no stopping him (more…)