Support for the Labour Party has grown in the aftermath of the Autumn Statement, a new poll reveals

Support for the Labour Party has grown in the aftermath of the Autumn Statement, a new poll reveals today.

The survey by GB News, sees Labour on 47% of the national vote, the Conservative Party on 21%, the Liberal Democrats on 10%, the Greens on 7% and Reform on 6%.

This represents a five-point jump for Labour when compared to polling carried out by the channel last week, and no movement at all for the Conservatives, who remain on 21% of the vote.

Commenting on the poll, a nationally representative survey of British adults by British Polling Council (BPC) member People Polling, Professor Matt Goodwin said: “Both these numbers and the polls more broadly suggest that the Conservative Party’s limited recovery that has been visible in the polls in recent weeks may have stalled. Labour is up 5-points on last week, perhaps suggesting a bounce after the autumn statement, although it is too early to know. Either way, were these numbers replicated at a general election you would be looking at a solid Labour majority of 240-260 and only around 100 Conservative MPs in the Commons”.

The poll also found voters backing Keir Starmer over Rishi Sunak. When asked who is best to manage the economy in the years ahead, 30% say a Labour government with Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister. Only 17% say a Conservative government with Rishi Sunak as prime minister. Only a minority of 2019 Conservative Party voters, 43%, back a Sunak-led Conservative government to manage the economy.

Prof Goodwin said: “Keir Starmer’s Labour Party continues to hold a strong lead when it comes to managing the economy, which is also the most important issue for voters. In the aftermath of the Autumn Budget, I imagine these numbers will be a relief to Starmer and his team. Worryingly for Rishi Sunak, only a minority of his own voters, 43%, back a Sunak-led government when it comes to managing the economy. The big winner in all this, however, is disillusionment. Overall, more than half the country, 54%, say they do not know who to back on the economy or would rather not say. This, to me, points to a considerable reservoir of voter discontent with the available options on left and right.”

When asked who they blamed for the crisis, voters placed equal weight on Liz Truss (21%) and the war in Ukraine (21%). This was followed by ‘the legacy of Covid-19’ (14%), ‘energy companies’ (9%) and then ‘Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government’.

Prof Goodwin said: “The good news for Rishi Sunak is that he is not being blamed by many voters for the current crisis. But the bad news is that his predecessor and the previous Conservative government loom big in voters’ minds. This is especially true for Labour voters, more than half of whom blame Truss (44%) or Sunak (10%) for the current crisis while only 11% blame global events. Sunak’s challenge will be to convince the country that its current problems lie more with global events than his own party, but that will be very, very hard given how strongly people feel about this”.

On the proposal to reduce the threshold at which people pay the highest rate of tax from £150,000 to £125,140, the poll found that 50% of adults support this measure while 13% are opposed. The remainder say they neither support nor oppose or they do now know). More than six in ten (61%) of Rishi Sunak’s voters support the measure, as do 57% of Labour voters, suggesting this policy will land well in the country as a whole. There is also majority support for helping the more than 600,000 people on benefits to have to meet with a work coach to help them back into the labour market. Overall, 57% of all voters support this, rising to 78% of Rishi Sunak’s own voters.

Commenting, Prof. Matt Goodwin added: “Amid a mass exodus from the Labour market, and millions of people now taking out-of-work benefits in various forms, this polling clearly points to public support for helping people who are on benefits back into the workplace. More broadly, this will be central to boosting the nation’s productivity going forward.”