New polling data from Ipsos in the UK, conducted 21-23 July 2026, reveals continued high levels of economic anxiety across the nation as Andy Burnham assumes office as Prime Minister.
The British public are increasingly sceptical of the Government's ability to improve public services, according to the latest Ipsos Government Delivery Index - our regular 'health check' on government performance and public expectations. This scepticism is particularly apparent with the NHS, for which public expectations have reached a record low.
According to the latest Ipsos Government Delivery Index, two in five British adults (40%) think that the Government's policies will improve the state of Britain's economy in the long-term, although slightly more (46%) disagree, giving a net optimism score of -6. This is slightly higher than the net score of -13 in May 2006.
The public's detailed image of the Prime Minister has deteriorated significantly in the last 18 months, analysis of data from the Ipsos Political Monitor shows; but while Gordon Brown's image is better, it shares many of the most negative characteristics of Mr Blair's. The poll, conducted at the start of September (before the recent public falling out over the Prime Minister's retirement date) finds that Mr Brown, like Mr Blair, is primarily seen as out of touch, though the public also admit that he has sound judgment, a description they are reluctant to apply to Tony Blair, and many more people describe him as inflexible, tending to talk down to people and narrow minded than have the same impression of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaders.
Satisfaction with the performance of Tony Blair as prime minister has hit new lows over the past two months, the latest Ipsos poll has found. The prime minister's performance rating is now barely a third of what it was immediately following his landslide election in 1997.
On Saturday 9 September 2006, Dr Roger Mortimore (Ipsos's Senior Political Analyst) spoke at the EPOP Conference in Nottingham*, on "Ethnic Minority Voters and Non-Voters at the 2005 British General Election", delivering a paper by himself and Kully Kaur-Ballagan (Ipsos Head of Ethnic Minority Research). The paper, which draws on Ipsos research conducted for the Electoral Commission after last year's election, explores the turnout and votes of Britain's various Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities. Turnout is strongly associated with a positive attitude to elections in general, as might be expected; but there is also some evidence of a strong community effect, with those who live in areas with many other BME residents disproportionately likely to have voted. Surprisingly, there is no evidence that attitudes to the government's policy in Iraq had any significant effect. The findings also illustrate how a high quality research design, including respondents from...
Two thirds of the British public (64%) believe that it is fair to say that Tony Blair is "all spin, but no substance" according to Ipsos's latest political poll exclusively for The Sunday Times. Just 28% of the public say that this criticism is unfair, giving a "spin over substance" index of +36. The public is divided about whether this accusation can be applied to Gordon Brown: 41% say it can and 45% say it cannot (an index of -4). A large proportion of the public have yet to decide about David Cameron, but where people do give an opinion they are more likely to say he is all spin, but no substance. Cameron's spin index is +11 (with 42% saying he is all spin and 31% saying he is not). Opinion about the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Menzies Campbell, divides three ways: 28 % agree he is all spin, but no substance; 36 % say he is not; and 36% say they don't know. This gives Campbell an index score of -8.
Some commentators have noted in recent months that Ipsos's voting intention figures are "more volatile" than those of the other companies, which in one sense is true; but they have also assumed that this implies they are less accurate, which is not necessarily the case, and some of them have clearly not understood why our figures sometimes move more dramatically than those in other polls.
