Poll: The economy is failing and the Conservatives are responsible | YouGov

Last Updated: March 16, 2016By


As George Osborne was preparing to announce more cuts in his Budget 2016 statement today, Tory-supporting pollsters YouGov told us the British people hate what he is doing.

Fewer people believe cuts are necessary than at any time during Osborne’s tenure as Chancellor.

Fewer believe they are good for the economy than at any time since he realised that they really were bad for the economy and cancelled his original cuts programme in 2012/13 (see the Mainly Macro and Tax Research UK blogs for more information on that).

And, while more people believe they are fair than in early 2012, with an approval rating of MINUS 38, that’s no reason to boast.

The image above is self-explanatory. We think the economy has tanked, and we think Osborne and the Tories are responsible.

Having already set a gloomy tone in the run-up to today’s (March 16) statement, Osborne may find he has painted himself and his party into a corner.

Approval of government cuts has taken a significant hit – and confidence in Britain’s economy has lost a year’s worth of ground2015’s budget, the first all-Tory budget since 1996, was delivered in the early days of the present Conservative government – when government approval was at a three-year high and two of the policies George Osborne announced, raising the personal tax allowance and minimum wage, were supported by at least 80% of the British public.

As we recently reported, the honeymoon in government approval is now over. The year began with alarm bells ringing over the global economy, and Conservative in-fighting over the European Union referendum has distracted the process of government. The Chancellor goes into this year’s budget with the lowest approval rating (-24) since June 2013 (-27).

George Osborne has already warned of cuts “equivalent to 50p in every £100” in today’s budget, dispensing with the sunny tone of 2015 and suggesting a return to the hard work of ‘living within our means’ to withstand global shocks. However new YouGov research reveals a significant loss of appetite for cuts.

Source: YouGov | Approval of government cuts at lowest level for years

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6 Comments

  1. jeffrey davies March 16, 2016 at 11:46 am - Reply

    they sold off our silver ware they borrowed more than any other party and we still in the pooop but making the peasants pay for the banksters fraud is their way allowing the rich to get their monies lost in the fraud yep the poor paid this bill

  2. Terry Davies March 16, 2016 at 1:39 pm - Reply

    Osborne is incapable of telling the truth about the budget cuts, the economy, the deficit and the country debt. why is he chancellor?,?,

  3. Jean Casale March 16, 2016 at 3:36 pm - Reply

    Osborne, cleverly, did not make any expected ‘cuts’ in his ‘budget’. He made an effort to sound like he is helping us with paying less taxes and wonderful plans for such things as the Northern Powerhouse. Plans to help small businesses etc. But, I am not holding my breath, because we know what will happen in the next few days; he or Duncan Smith will surreptitiously make more planned cuts without debating them in Parliament….

  4. paulrutherford8 March 16, 2016 at 6:55 pm - Reply

    It looks like people believed the lies during the run-up to the general election, but things seem to have changed since. It would be good to think that blogs like this may have helped that happen in some way?

    • Mike Sivier March 16, 2016 at 9:08 pm - Reply

      Agreed.

  5. Barry March 16, 2016 at 9:17 pm - Reply

    He’s sticking to his long term economic plan which despite being chancellor for 6 years, he hasn’t managed to tell us exactly what it is, other than some waffle about cutting the deficit, although it is increasing not decreasing, and somehow curing the disabled sick and incapacitated by incentivising them by creating a massive poverty stricken underclass of this group.

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