Polls: Britons reject idea of more cuts


by Sunny Hundal    
3:13 pm - July 30th 2012

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A YouGov survey for the Sunday Times has found the British public is decisively moving against the government narrative on the economy.

They key findings:

1. Just 25% think the government is handling the economy well. This is the lowest figure we have yet recorded

2. Only 19% now think Osborne should remain chancellor. As many as 52% want Cameron to replace him. More than one in four Conservative voters hold this view

3. 45% now think ‘the government should change its strategy to concentrate on growth, even if this means the deficit stays longer or gets worse’.
Just 28% want ‘the government to stick to its current strategy of reducing the deficit, even if this means growth remains slow’. This 17 point lead for Plan B over Plan A is the largest we have found.

But by far the emphatic rejection of govt policy was that of reducing the deficit faster by cutting government spending faster.

Lib Dem voters broadly agree with Labour voters in rejecting deeper spending cuts, but are even keener than the Tories in opposing tax cuts that add top borrowing. In fact the only Plan B policy that Lib Dem voters like, and then only by a narrow margin, is borrowing more to spend on infrastructure.

When asked whom people trust more to run the economy, Cameron and Osborne, or Ed Miliband and Ed Balls, the Tory duo remain fractionally ahead, by 34% to 31%. The Tory 3-point lead is their lowest yet, said YouGov.

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About the author
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments


1. margin4error

Interesting to see the infrastructure option growing puplic support. If the government is smart it will build on that as its growth strategy.

2. Pat

You can call this government a lot of things, but (especially after the omnishambles of the last few months), probably not ‘smart’.

3. margin4error

You might be right Pat

4. davidh

- proof of not being smart, is that big engineering projects like Nuclear rojects head up this list. These will tend to take years to get off the ground, have large amounts of the work tied up in contracts with multinationals, so funds will move abroad.

5. margin4error

davidh

The “multi-national” concern is only related to the margins that companies make from the work. Most of the work, and thus employment, plus the eventual boost of having more efficient infrastructure that is able to attract inward investment – is obviously directly to the benefit of the UK economy.

That said – you are right that the big headline projects tend to take a long time to get off the ground and so won’t boost the economy for quite some time.

That’s not a reason to do them. We do need some major projects in this country if we are to become competitive. (The world economic forum ranks us 28th in the world for infrastructure, which is shameful). But relatively smaller projects need support too – and it is possible that because they generate no headlines, we won’t get much from government on those.

6. Mike Fowler

The puppeteer and his rich henchmen have no concept of poor or disabled. They have put many people over 50years old permanently out of work thanks to no immigration control and still they ignore advice from top economists and leave us at the mercy of an ex public-schoolboy who couldnt manage a bookstall. Now we have two parties with internal dog-fights and a dog-fight between them. Enough is enough, time to say goodbye and give the country back to people with morals, integrity and brains.


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Pat Martin

    Polls: Britons reject idea of more cuts http://t.co/gPlqgIS0

  2. Graham Riding

    Polls: Britons reject idea of more cuts http://t.co/gPlqgIS0

  3. Joseph Burnett

    Just 25% of Brits think the govt is handling the economy well – lowest recorded by YouGov yet http://t.co/5Ip7tDAX

  4. Colin-Roy Hunter

    Polls: Britons reject idea of more cuts http://t.co/gPlqgIS0

  5. Jamie

    Polls: Britons reject idea of more cuts

    http://t.co/RUIJvv6K

  6. Colin-Roy Hunter

    Polls: Britons reject idea of more cuts | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/Wjqozr9g via @libcon

  7. Pablo Bello

    Polls: Britons reject idea of more cuts http://t.co/gPlqgIS0

  8. MagsNews

    Just 25% of Brits think the govt is handling the economy well – lowest recorded by YouGov yet http://t.co/5Ip7tDAX

  9. Liza Harding

    Just 25% of Brits think the govt is handling the economy well – lowest recorded by YouGov yet http://t.co/5Ip7tDAX

  10. Don Lands

    Just 25% of Brits think the govt is handling the economy well – lowest recorded by YouGov yet http://t.co/5Ip7tDAX

  11. Ironmouse

    Poll finds that Britons overwhelmingly reject more cuts to reduce the deficit http://t.co/5Ip7tDAX

  12. Rachael Chrisp

    Poll finds that Britons overwhelmingly reject more cuts to reduce the deficit http://t.co/5Ip7tDAX

  13. Polls: Britons reject idea of more cuts | Coalition of Resistance Against Cuts & Privatisation

    [...] From Liberal Conspiracy [...]

  14. BevR

    Polls: Britons reject idea of more cuts | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/YD73Grlh via @libcon

  15. neil lambert

    Polls: Britons reject idea of more cuts | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/YD73Grlh via @libcon

  16. Daniel Weller

    Polls: Britons reject idea of more cuts | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/9IL8O1Si via @libcon

    Not true. I want 1 more cut: George Osbourne

  17. Rose N

    I'm late to the news but whooo finally, waves of sense and economic realisation wash over the UK
    http://t.co/b0MOGxle

  18. saramo

    Polls: Britons reject idea of more cuts http://t.co/gPlqgIS0





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