Public continue to doubt that Labour is doing a good job at delivering on missions; are pessimistic about improvement by next General Election

A recent Ipsos UK poll reveals that the British public continues to hold a pessimistic view of the Labour government's ability to deliver on its five key missions, both currently and by the next general election.

Labour's missions

• Overall pessimism: Across all five missions, more people continue to believe the Labour government is doing a bad job than a good job. The highest disapproval ratings are for "Kickstart economic growth”, "Take back our streets” (both with bad job ratings of 43%), and “Build and NHS fit for the future (42%). There is slightly less negativity (albeit still not positive) for “Break down barriers to opportunity” (37%) and “Make Britain a clean energy superpower” (38%). Public views have been pretty consistent in their pessimism since last November (apart from a small improvement for “Take back our streets), and all are in a worse position than they were in September.

• Top priority: "Building an NHS fit for the future" continues to be the public's top priority among Labour's missions, chosen by 65% of respondents. This is followed by "Kickstart economic growth" at 40%.
• Future outlook: Public pessimism continues when people are asked to predict whether Labour will deliver on their missions by the next general election. "Kickstart economic growth" remains the area with the lowest public confidence, with a net negative score of -16. Hope that Labour will succeed by the next election is slightly more positive than it is delivering at the moment, although still only around 1 in 4 Britons think the government will have done a good job by then.

Gideon Skinner, Senior Director of UK Politics at Ipsos said:

The continuing public pessimism surrounding Labour’s ability to accomplish its five missions will be deeply concerning for the government. While the public continues to see the NHS as a top priority, there's a pervasive doubt about Labour's ability to deliver on all their key missions, not just now, but also looking ahead to the next election – and especially on the economy. The data suggests a stubborn disconnect between what the public experiences in their day-to-day lives and the outcomes they want to see delivered by the government, a gap Labour needs to bridge to regain public trust.

Technical note: 

• Ipsos interviewed a representative sample of 1,084 online British adults aged 18-75 across Great Britain between 17th-20th January 2025. 
• Data are weighted to match the profile of the population. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.