No Budget Bounce for the Conservatives

If the Government was hoping for a post Budget bounce, today’s polling by Opinium for The Observer will make for disappointing reading.  

When it comes to headline voting intentions, the Conservatives on 29% and Labour on 44% are both unchanged from where they were in Opinium’s last poll two week ago.

A slight chink of light for the Conservative Party will be the fact that whilst 27% believe that the Labour Leader, Keir Starmer and Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves would be most trusted to handle the economy, slightly more, 29% opted for the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

However digging deeper 33% say a Labour government led by Keir Starmer would be best at spending government money efficiently compared to 25% saying the same about a Conservative government led by Rishi Sunak.

32% say Labour at present would be best at running the economy, compared to 30% saying the Conservatives. 35% say Keir Starmer’s Labour Party would be best at improving their own financial situation, compared to 20% saying Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party. 31% however say they feel the Conservatives are best placed to bring down the national debt and deficit just ahead of the 30% saying Labour would be.

When it comes to public services, 43% of those questioned say Labour would be best at improving them compared to 17% saying the Conservatives are.

Looking at the Budget as a whole, just 18% said it was ‘good’ compared to 33% saying it was ‘bad’.

Diving into the detail, just 26% believe it was a good idea to scrap any tax paid on pension contributions for people whose pension pot is valued at over £1.07 million. 43% said it was a bad idea. However the Conservatives can take heart that:

  • 63% say it was a good idea to extend the free childcare of 30 hours a week that is currently available for 3-4 year olds and to 1-2 year olds by 2025.
  • 75% support the continuation of the freeze on fuel duty.
  • 85% felt it was a good idea that the Government will continue its support for household energy bills for a further three months.
  • 45% support increasing Corporation Tax rates from 19% to 25%.
  • 73% believe the Government’s plans to increase funding for the Potholes Fund by 40% to help councils fix potholes is a good idea.

Looking ahead to the next 12 months, 46% of those polled feel the economy is set to get worse, despite the Chancellor’s positive rhetoric on Wednesday. Just 21% believe it will get better. Over the same period, 40% believe their own personal finances will get worse, compared to 19% who believe they will get worse.

Separately, with the Prime Minister making stopping the boats carrying asylum seekers across the Channel a priority, just 17% believe the government’s policies on asylum will improve the situation. 23% say they will worsen it.   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Buyers Regret Over Brexit?

This week marked five years since the UK voted to leave the European Union, a decision which has shaken British politics in a way that few would have foreseen. To mark the occasion, Savanta ComRes this week published polling suggesting that if the referendum were held today, remain would just win, with 51% of respondents saying they would vote to stay in the EU compared to 49% who would vote to leave. The poll shows that there would be little switching from either side, with 6% of those who voted remain in 2016 saying they would not vote to leave, and 7% of those who originally voted to leave saying they would now vote remain. Savanta ComRes go on to say: “That means the Remain edge in this poll comes from those who did not vote in 2016, with this group being more than twice as likely to vote for Remain (71%) than Leave (29%).” The poll found however that if the public were asked instead to choose between joining the EU or not, 51% would vote not to become a member, whilst 49% w...
Read more

Can Labour Look Forward to a Decade in Power?

Speaking at the start of the year the new Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, spoke of a "decade of national renewal" being the "central, defining purpose" of a future Labour government. Fast forward to today, and for those now in Government the question will be whether the election results can give Labour any confidence at the prospect of a decade in power. Some might conclude that it is absurd to be asking this question, given Labour’s 172 seat majority in the Commons. That is just 7 short of the majority New Labour secured in 1997 which ushered in 13 years of Labour rule. However, dig deeper, and the reality is that Labour’s victory is thin. According to the election results Labour won on Thursday having secured around 9.7 million votes, equivalent to 33.7% of the votes cast. To set that into context, according to House of Commons Library data , that compares to the 13.5 million votes (43.2% vote share) Labour got in 1997. What is more, the total number of ...
Read more

Rishi’s Ratings Sink

Rishi Sunak has registered his weakest favourability ratings since becoming Prime Minister according to new polling by Ipsos Mori. It reports that whilst the Labour Leader, Keir Starmer, has a net favourability score of -7, Rishi Sunak’s has sunk to -19. With Boris Johnson continuing to breathe down Rishi Sunak’s neck, Ipsos goes on to note: “More than half of 2019 Conservative voters are favourable to Johnson (55%) while 49% say the same for Sunak. Overall, among 2019 Conservative voters, Johnson scores +29 while Sunak scores +23.   However, Johnson’s lead owes more to falling ratings for Mr Sunak rather than improving ratings for the former PM.” Looking at the parties as a whole, Labour has a net favourability rating of +2 with the Conservatives on -29. When it coms to Brexit, 55% of respondents told Ipsos that leaving the EU had had a negative impact on the country, with just 21% saying it had been positive. It continues: “If we subtract the proportion saying Brexit has...
Read more