Chancellor Jeremy Hunt making an emergency statement to the Commons on Monday on his tax and spend plans
(Picture: PA Wire)Jeremy Hunt’s huge task to salvage the Tories shredded reputation on managing the economy, tax, pensions and the cost-of-living crisis was laid bare on Monday by a poll showing Labour significantly ahead on all these issues.
As Liz Truss battles to stay Prime Minister just 42 days since entering No10, the Ipsos survey for the Standard revealed the full scale of the whirlwind of damage to the Tory party wreaked by Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget.
In a torrent of dismal data for the Tories, it found:
- Labour is seen to have the best policies on managing the economy over the Conservatives for the first time since September 2007. Sir Keir Starmer’s party is on 34 per cent, up eight points since April, with the Tories on 21 per cent, down 11 points and a gap now of 13 points.
- Labour is seen as the best party on taxation by double as many adults now, 39 per cent to 20 per cent, its biggest lead since 1995.
- On pensions, Sir Keir’s party is ahead by 32 per cent to 18 per cent, the biggest Labour leader since 2002.
- Around three times as many voters back Labour to deal most successfully with the cost-of-living crisis, 40 per cent compared to 14 per cent for the Conservatives.
- On benefits policy, Labour is far ahead, by 49 per cent to 13 per cent, the party’s biggest recorded lead since at least 2010.
- Five times as many people support Labour as the best party for addressing poverty and inequality, 48 per cent to nine per cent, the biggest gap for seven years.
- As for tackling unemployment, voters favour Sir Keir’s party by 38 per cent to 23 per cent.
When voters are asked which party has the best policies in 15 core areas, the Conservatives are now ahead on just one, defence, by 34 per cent to 18 per cent.
They also trail by a record gap since at least 2015 - on asylum and immigration, with Labour on 26 per cent, the Tories 18 per cent, healthcare where the scores are 47 per cent to 13 per cent respectively and the biggest Labour lead since 1999, education 33 per cent to 22 per cent, crime and anti-social behaviour 26 per cent to 21 per cent and the first Labour lead since 2002, housing 40 per cent to 12 per cent and the biggest Labour lead since 1998, and the environment 17 per cent to 12 per cent, with the Greens ahead of both on 28 per cent.
The Ipsos data on handling Britain’s future with the EU only goes back to April 2017 but Labour is now marginally ahead for the first time on 27 per cent to 24 per cent.
Former Chancellor Lord Hammond has warned the Conservatives have “thrown away years and years of painstaking work to build and maintain a reputation as a party of fiscal discipline and competence in government”.
The credibility of many ministers has also taken a battering as they defended the “Kamikwasi” mini budget, despite it sending the pound into a nosedive, hiking the cost of mortgages for millions of households, forcing the Bank of England into emergency intervention to prop up pension funds, and increasing the cost of Government borrowing.
Trade minister Greg Hands was even insisting Ms Truss had “total confidence” in Mr Kwarteng just hours before he was sacked.
The poll was carried out before Mr Kwarteng was replaced as Chancellor by Mr Hunt who has pledged to deliver “compassionate Conservatism” after his predecessor’s decision to focus less on the redistribution of wealth in the dash for economic growth that he and Ms Truss were gambling on.
The new Chancellor was making an emergency statement to the Commons on Monday, bringing forward the announcement of some measures that were due to be laid out on October 31 as the Government seeks to keep the markets calm after the Bank of England withdrew the support it had put in to protect pension funds.
Having torn up Mr Kwarteng’s mini budget, Mr Hunt has warned of “difficult decisions” ahead on public spending and stressed taxes may have to rise to get Britain’s public finances back on an even keel, by plugging a blackhole of tens of billions of pounds.
He was expected to delay by a year the 1p cut in the basic rate of income tax so it would now be introduced in April 2024.
As he tries to rescue Tory hopes in time for the next General Election, expected in 2024, the survey revealed how severely the Conservative “party image” had been wrecked, with Labour leading on every positive metric asked on these trends.
Labour’s biggest leads are on:
- Being concerned about people in real need in Britain, by 50 per cent to 13 per cent.
- Understanding problems facing Britain, 46 per cent to 22 per cent.
- Looking after the interests of people like me, 37 per cent to 14 per cent.
- Having a good team of leaders, 30 per cent to 11 per cent.
- Being fit to govern, 35 per cent to 16 per cent.
- Keeping its promises, 22 per cent to ten per cent.
Each of these scores are the lowest the Tories have scored over the past eleven years (or last seven for concerned about people in real need).
Almost half of voters, (47 per cent) agree Sir Keir’s party is ready to form the next Government, up ten points since July, and the highest score since Labour went into opposition, with 32 disagreeing.
These numbers compare to those for David Cameron in April 2010, shortly before he became PM, when 47 per cent agreed the Conservatives were ready and 41 per ecnt disagreed, but slightly behind on Blair in 1997 when 55 per cent agreed, 33 per cent disagreed.
Gideon Skinner, Head of Political Research at Ipsos UK, said: “Over the last couple of years, the Conservative party image has been in steady decline – particularly on issues of governing competence and empathy – and this has continued under the new Prime Minister.
“Now however it is compounded by the party also falling behind Labour when the public rates who has the best policies on their top two priorities: the cost of living crisis and the economy (where Labour have their first lead for 15 years).
“Meanwhile, though on some detailed image scores the story is more about Conservative weaknesses than Labour improvements, the other notable piece of good news for Keir Starmer is the clear rise in those who think Labour are ready to form the next government, to their best score since they went into opposition.”
Only one in five (22 per cent) agree the Conservatives deserve to be re-elected, down nine points on July, with 60 per cent disagreeing, up eight points.
The Tories are also more likely to be seen as extreme than Labour, by 33 per cent to 12 per cent, divided, by 64 per cent to 36 per cent, willing to promise anything to win votes, 65 per cent to 51 per cent, and out of date, 52 per cent to 30 per cent.
The poll put Labour on 47 per cent, the Tories 26 per cent, the highest Labour lead for 20 years, with the Liberal Democrats on ten per cent, as revealed by the Standard on Friday.
