Public mood ahead of the Budget
Welcome to The Politics Wire, Ipsos’s new blog on all things politics, public opinion and polling.
With more than 30 years of experience researching political attitudes, Ipsos has the most long-term and comprehensive set of polling data of all polling agencies in the UK. The politics team at Ipsos will be drawing on our long-term trend data and commenting on new findings to shed light on topical issues.
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A few days before George Osborne’s second Budget, it won’t come as a surprise that the economy is, according to the public, the most important issue facing Britain and has been since September 2008, with concern about unemployment also rising. However, the proportion of the public saying unemployment is an important issue is nowhere near as high as it was in the early 1980s (when at times over 80% of the public were concerned about unemployment).
The public’s mood is more negative on the future of the economy than it has been for two years. A third already feel affected by the cuts and three-quarters are worried about the impact on themselves and their families in the future.
Although there is confidence in the Coalition’s long-term policies for the economy, and more blame the previous Labour government for the current need for cuts, the Conservatives’ lead over Labour as having the best policies for the economy has narrowed since last year. The parties’ prospects of electoral success really do lie in the recovery - or otherwise - of the economy.
