A YouGov poll for the Telegraph has shown many people feel the election campaign has been childish, negative, dishonest and boring.

The survey, published on Friday, showed Labour's campaign has fared worst among potential voters, but only just.

Only 17 per cent of respondents judged the Labour campaign to have been "the most serious, dignified and worthy of respect so far" and thirty per cent thought it the "least" serious so far.

Over 35 per cent of those asked said the campaign could be described as "childish and infantile", "focused on personalities" and "negative".

By contrast, less than four per cent thought the campaign to have been "grown-up", "a credit to democracy", "honest", "pleasant" or "nice".

The data suggests negative campaigning may "work" in the sense of putting some voters off supporting a particular party.

But it also seems to be having the effect of making politicians and the business of politics in general seem underhand and distasteful.

Another interesting finding is that despite criticisms from female Labour MPs that the party's campaign has been too "macho", only nine per cent of respondents in the YouGov poll thought this was the case.

And about one third of eligible voters – rising to nearly 40 per cent among the younger age brackets –  do not listen to what politicians have to say on either television or radio at all.