Voters have “lost all hope” in the Conservative government, a leading pollster has warned after the first major survey following yesterday’s Budget showed that it had failed to shift public opinion at all.
The weekly Techne UK tracker poll for Express.co.uk has the Tories unchanged on 23% and Labour the same on 44% meaning that Sir Keir Starmer’s party still has commanding 21 point lead.
It appears to have justified the claim made by a Tory MP to Express.co.uk: “This Budget will have zero effect. It will not shift the dial at all.”
If this result were to be reproduced in a general election, the Conservatives would be left with 73 MPs and Labour would have a majority of 316 according to Electoral Calculus.
Even more worrying for Rishi Sunak is that less than one in five (19%) of a core group of Tory voters – pensions aged 64 and above – would now vote Conservative with 23% going to Labour.
The poll showed that both the Lib Dems, who could take seats off the Conservatives in the south west and north west of England, and Reform UK, who could split the Tory vote, are both up one to 11%, giving Mr Sunak an even bigger headche.
The poor polling among pensioners comes as Tory MPs and campaiugn groups have claimed that pensioners have done worst from Jeremy Hunt’s Budget.
They failed to benefit fromt he main tax cut – 2p off National Insurance – because they do not pay reaching retirement age.
But the party is also failing to attract back the voters who won them an 80-seat majority in 2019. According to the findings only 41% of 2019 Tory voters would support the party in an election now.
Of the rest 16% have defected to Richard Tice’s Reform which advocates much bigger tax cuts and claims to be the real conservative party, while 13% have switched to Labour and 23% would not vote or are uncertain.
However, it is confidence in the government where the party really seems to have been hurt.
Of the 1,640 people polled only 34% have confidence in Sunak’s government.
Meanwhile, apathy with politics is so low that only 45% would definitely vote at the next general election.
Techne UK chief executive Michela Morizzo warned that voters have lost confidence in the tories and “are looking for alternatives.”
She said: “Our regular tracker poll – which this week was sampled across the Chancellor’s Spring Budget on Wednesday last – sums up in a snapshot the Conservative Government’s key problem. This being that voters remain indifferent.
“Regardless of what Rishi Sunak’s Government offers the dial will not reshift in their favour. This indifference is born out this week in our poll with the Conservatives staying stationary on 23% of national vote share. And with Labour also holding firm on 44% of national vote share.
“I continue to believe that the British electorate has lost hope with regards to the future and are searching for alternatives. Time will tell if these alternatives will be able to deliver what people really need.”
