Three-quarters of people think the UK needs a change of government, according to a poll by the think tank More in Common.
The figures suggest a challenging year ahead for Rishi Sunak as he prepares for what many expect will be the last 12 months of the current Parliament.
Not only did 75% of people tell More in Common that they thought it was time for a change of government, that figure also included 47% of those who voted Conservative in 2019 and 79% of voters in the “Red Wall” that helped deliver Boris Johnson’s victory four years ago.
More than two-thirds of people said the last 13 years of Conservative government had been bad for Britain, while a majority blamed the government for both the cost-of-living crisis and long NHS waiting lists – voters’ two top priorities.
Luke Tryl, UK director for More in Common, said the figures were “really, really stark”.
He said: “We know that when there’s a ‘time for change’ mood in the electorate, it’s very hard to push against that.”
However, he added, voters were “not necessarily convinced that Labour would do a better job of running the country”, with 32% saying the opposition would do better and 27% saying Labour would do worse.
Mr Tryl pointed to recent focus groups in which voters had said they were “sick to death” of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer criticising the Government and not setting out what he would do instead.
Focus groups also expressed doubt about Mr Sunak, with participants saying he had not achieved much as Prime Minister and describing him as “very unrelatable” because of his wealth.
Despite Conservative hopes that Mr Sunak would bring Tory polling numbers up into line with his own popularity, the Prime Minister has seen his standing decline, with the proportion of people saying he is an asset to his party falling from 39% to 29% in the four months since May.
Adding to the Government’s struggles, Mr Tryl suggested that parts of the electorate had “switched off” from politics and would not be receptive to Conservative messages unless they began to feel materially better off.
He added that the Raac crisis’s lack of impact on the polls could be a “worrying sign” for the Tories, suggesting news that things in Britain “aren’t working” had been “priced in”.
More in Common’s figures come from a poll of around 2,000 adults carried out between September 1 and 4.
