A defining theme of the general election 2024 campaign is that while Labour enjoys a monumental lead in the polls, there is a lack of enthusiasm about having a Labour government, or belief in its potential to change very much.
Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, blames the Conservatives for this and has suggested that the underlying issue is that “over the past 14 years, the government has beaten the hope out of people”. The implication here is that people have come to think that the government can’t, or won’t, do very much to improve people’s lot in life.
In a recent survey, details of which are published here for the first time, we have found evidence that people do indeed lack hope that the government can tackle society’s major challenges – but also that they think governments should do more to meet these challenges. We surveyed over 2,000 people online across the UK in April 2024 using a sample representative of the general public provided by YouGov.
