Rachel Reeves’s spring statement is almost as unpopular as the disastrous mini-Budget that collapsed Liz Truss’s short-lived premiership, a new poll suggests.
Just one in five people had a positive view of the chancellor’s latest fiscal statement – in which she unveiled a fresh round of cuts to benefits – while 49 per cent of those polled by BMG Research for the i newspaper viewed it negatively. A third of Labour voters also disapproved of the chancellor’s announcements.
Those findings give Ms Reeves’s spring statement a net popularity rating of -28, making it the least popular fiscal event since Ms Truss’s mini-Budget, which was rated at -37.
Labour’s October Budget – which angered farmers and heaped further taxes on employers – had a net rating of -15.
And in a twin blow to Ms Reeves, a further damning poll by Ipsos found just one in five people now believe she is doing a good job – a score which sees her plunge towards the approval rating of Ms Truss’s chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in the wake of their 2022 mini-Budget.
Following the mini-Budget, which sent mortgage rates spiralling, Mr Kwarteng had an approval rating of -37. Ms Reeves is currently on -32, a five point drop in the past two weeks. BMG’s polling also put the chancellor on -32.
“No chancellor of the Exchequer wants their job approval to be compared to Kwasi Kwarteng’s time in No 11, but Rachel Reeves’s current scores are nearing his post mini-Budget levels,” Ipsos director of UK politics Gideon Skinner said.
The Ipsos poll was conducted on the day Ms Reeves used her spring statement to unveil a fresh round of benefit cuts the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) warned will push 250,000 more people, including 50,000 children, into poverty.
The chancellor also drew criticism for leaving just a whisker of breathing room ahead of the government’s next Budget this autumn, with top economists warning she will now face six months of “damaging speculation” about future tax hikes or spending cuts.
Ms Truss’s tenure in Downing Street lasted just 49 days after her disastrous so-called mini-budget triggered mass market turmoil and saw the pound tank to a 37-year low against the dollar.
Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng announced the biggest raft of tax cuts for half a century in the statement, but were quickly forced to climb down over their plan to scrap the top rate of income tax for the highest earners.
Mr Kwarteng was sacked after just 38 days in a desperate bid by Ms Truss to shield herself from the fallout of the mini-Budget. He became the second shortest serving chancellor behind Iain Macleod, who died a month after taking office.
Ms Reeves faced mounting questions the day after her spring statement, with the influential Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warning pensioners and the wealthy could now face a shock tax raid in the autumn if the worsening economic forecast fails to improve.
But despite disapproval towards the package as a whole, the polling by BMG – conducted on Wednesday and Thursday – found that most of the specific announcements in Ms Reeves’s spring statement were backed by a majority of the public, particularly her boost to defence spending and 15 per cent cuts to Civil Service administrative budgets.
Her decision to tighten the eligibility rules for personal independence payments (PIP) was found to be the most controversial measure, with 42 per cent of those polled in favour and 30 per cent expressing disapproval.
“Not since the mini-Budget has a fiscal event been viewed so negatively by the public as this spring statement,” Robert Struthers of BMG told the i newspaper, which commissioned the poll.
“The only silver lining for Labour is that public awareness of the event is lower than for more negatively perceived budgets in previous years – meaning any criticism may not be quite as widely felt.
“As is often the case with fiscal events, Labour faces a familiar challenge: individual policies are polling positively, but public sentiment towards the overall package remains negative. That’s a hard narrative to shift – and the spring statement has so far been unable to do so.”
