Labour has opened a commanding lead over the Tories on the issue of home ownership as it surges further ahead of Rishi Sunak’s party on wider questions of economic management.
The latest Opinium poll for the Observer puts Labour 15 points ahead of the Conservatives. Keir Starmer’s party is on 42% (down two points compared with a fortnight ago) with the Tories on 27% (down one point). The Liberal Democrats are unchanged on 10%, Reform is up two points on 8%, and the Greens are up one on 7%.
The survey shows that people are worried and deeply pessimistic about the economy, with fewer than one in five (17%) thinking that the Conservatives are in control of the economic situation.
Even among 2019 Conservative voters, fewer than one in three (31%) think the government is in control. Some 83% of people are worried about inflation, 76% about the state of the economy generally, and 68% fear a recession.
As if this were not bad enough for Sunak and the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, the Tories also seem to have lost their reputation as the party of homeownership – promoted since Margaret Thatcher’s premiership and typified by her “right to buy” policy launched in the 1980s – to Labour.
At its conference, Labour went big on its strategy to build more homes, and announced plans for two more new towns. When Opinium asked which party would be better at helping people buy their own homes, 36% said Labour, and only 16% chose the Conservatives.
Labour’s lead on running the economy in general has also grown from 2% in July to 7%, with Starmer and his shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves putting the focus on economic credibility, and responsibility with the public finances, appearing to have paid off.
While right-wing Conservative MPs try to put pressure on Hunt to cut taxes ahead of a general election, there is little sign that the public would prefer this, against more investment in public services. Some 36% said they would favour increasing taxes and spending more on public services, against just 16% who wanted to cut taxes and spend less on services. Some 28% wanted the balance to stay more or less as it is.
