Sir John Curtice told The i Paper that new research he has helped lead points to deep scepticism from the public about ideas such as relaxing planning rules and cutting disability benefits.
The British Social Attitudes survey, published on Wednesday by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), finds that 26 per cent of people say they are stuggling to live on the income they have, the highest proportion ever recorded.
The proportion of people who are dissatisfied with the NHS has also hit a record high, at 59 per cent – up from 25 per cent before the pandemic – with 69 per cent believing the Government spends too little on health despite significant rises in funding over recent years.
square JOHN CURTICE John Curtice: Polls show the Tories have an electoral mountain to climb
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But other parts of the survey find that many voters are opposed to the policies set out by Starmer to boost the economy and therefore improve living standards and the quality of public services.
Curtice said: “It’s during the pandemic that you see the rise in the proportion of people say, ‘Oh, hang on, I’m not sure I do want more houses around me locally’ – arguably, people came to value their local environment more.”
There is also controversy around Government plans to cut disability benefits, with only a majority of voters agreeing that this would be a good idea, according to the research. Curtice said: “The point that I can make about all these things, of course, is that these are all things where there are very potentially clear winners and losers… The benefits of these things are widely distributed, the costs are concentrated. And therefore it’s not necessarily politically an easier win, because you will still end up with potentially local campaigns that would cause difficulties for local MPs.”
More popular ways of finding more money for public services, according to Curtice, could include hiking taxes on the wealthy and getting closer to the EU.The British Social Attitudes survey, which comes out every year, finds that only 19 per cent of the public believe that the UK’s political system requires “little or no improvement”, with just 12 per cent trusting the Government to put the country’s interest ahead of its own.
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