The immediate outlook for the country appeared bleak as Jeremy Hunt returned to his seat in the House of Commons after delivering his autumn statement on Thursday afternoon.
And Hunt’s prospects in his constituency look similarly fragile, if opinion polls are to be believed. The South West Surrey seat, comfortably held by Hunt at the last election, is now a target for the Liberal Democrats.
The level of anger towards the government was palpable among some of Hunt’s constituents on Thursday, even though they live in one of the least deprived areas of the country.
“We are in crisis. Most of my family have used food banks at least once or twice this year,” said Kelly Clark, 38, shortly after the chancellor had finished speaking in the Commons. “Everyone is in crisis, [the price of] everything is going up. With the country in recession, we are screwed. In my eyes, it is ‘feed the rich, starve the poor’.”
Colin Coleridge, 61, a former recovery coach for people dealing with drug and alcohol addiction, said: “The economy is just going wild. There seems to be more crime because people cannot get what they need to live. They cannot afford to eat. Living standards are going down. Living standards are getting poorer for the young. Growing up, they haven’t got a chance.”
One woman who had recently left university said she was about to start a job in London. The woman, who asked not to be named, said she would have to swallow living with her parents and braving a three-hour round trip to work because housing costs in the capital were so high.
The state of public services was also a source of dismay. Dave and Kathy Allen, retirees who live in Dorset and were visiting their daughter and grandchild in Godalming, bemoaned the increasing difficulty in seeing a doctor. “You phone up if you want an appointment and sometimes it is three weeks,” said Kathy, 62.
Where did each place the responsibility for the country’s economic woes? Primarily with the government, they said.
Hunt was one of several senior Tories recently identified as being at serious risk of losing their seats in the next general election. A poll for the Trades Union Congress carried out at the end of Liz Truss’s premiership suggested a landslide Labour win nationally, with Hunt, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Thérèse Coffey among the then cabinet ministers in trouble.
In normal times, Hunt’s majority of nearly 9,000 would seem safe enough. But these are not normal times. Coleridge gave Hunt a 50-50 chance of keeping his seat. Clark said she was unlikely to vote at all.
Charlotte Smith, 47, who works in accountancy, said she believed Hunt and Rishi Sunak were trying to dissociate themselves from the failures of their Tory colleagues – a tactic she thought might yet work.
“They are trying to make it sound really bad so that when their measures are put in place they can say ‘look what we have done about it’. He will try to take credit for any improvements,” she said of Hunt.
“I would be surprised if he lost it because there are a lot of older voters who would vote for him around here … I would like to see the Tories get a bloody nose, for sure. But I would be surprised if they lost round here. There is a bubble around here where there are an awful lot of people who live very comfortably.”
