Majority of Britons feel worse off since the last General Election

• 53% feel worse off since the 2019 General Election, 14% feel better off.
• Public split on whether they will be better or worse off if Labour win next time – but more likely to say they would be worse off if the Conservatives win again.

The latest Ipsos Political Pulse, conducted online between the 24th and 27th of November asked the public whether they feel better or worse off since the Conservatives won re-election in 2019 and whether they would be better or worse off if Labour or the Conservatives win the next one. The research also asked whether the public feel more reassured or concerned about various aspects of life in Britain following the recent Autumn Statement.

Are you better off?

• When asked if they feel better or worse off, if either, than when the Conservatives won re-election in 2019, 53% say they feel worse off and 14% say they feel better off. Nearly half (45%) of 2019 Conservative voters from 2019 feel worse off.

• When asked if they would be better or worse off if the Conservatives or Labour won the next General Election, we find the public more likely to think they would be better off if Labour won. However, there is limited expectation from the public that they will be better off under either.
• Just 15% think they would be better off if Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives win the next General Election and 51% say they would be worse off. This picture is now near identical to what the public said of the Johnson government in April 2022.

• Meanwhile, the public are split on whether they’d be better or worse off under Labour. 30% say they’d be better off and 34% say they would be worse off. The figures here also similar to April 2022.

Reaction to the Autumn statement

Looking back at the Autumn Statement, the public are more likely to be concerned rather than reassured in several areas: such as their own financial circumstances (40% to 19%), the British economy (42% to 18%) or Britain’s public services (46% to 13%).

Ipsos Director of Politics Keiran Pedley said of the findings:

For all the talk about immigration and Rwanda, it is worth remembering that the so-called ‘Reagan question’ still haunts the Conservative Party as a General Election approaches. Just over half feel worse off than when the Conservatives were re-elected in 2019 and whilst the public are split on whether they would be better off under Labour, they are more likely to think they would be than if the Conservatives win again.

Technical note

Ipsos interviewed a representative sample of 1,016 GB adults aged 18-75. Interviews were conducted online from 24-27th November 2023.  Data are weighted to match the profile of the population. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.