Rachel Reeves’s Budget is the most unpopular since Liz Truss according to exclusive polling for The i Paper which finds most voters believe the Chancellor has left them worse off.
But most of the individual measures announced on Wednesday are supported by more people than oppose them, the survey by BMG Research suggested.
But overall the public is not enthusiastic about the Budget package, predicting it will harm economic growth and the cost of living.
Reeves unveiled £26bn of tax rises, with the money going to higher benefits spending, support for living costs and a greater buffer against her borrowing rules to reassure financial markets she is serious about tackling the national debt.
More than half felt negative towards Budget
Of those who are aware of the Budget’s contents, only 22 per cent said they felt positive about it with 51 per cent feeling negative.
Some of Reeves’s individual proved popularThat is the first time a majority of those polled have been critical of a government’s fiscal event since 2022 when Truss and her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng delivered the “mini Budget” which led to a market crash and their swift ejection from Downing Street.
Half – 50 per cent predicted the Budget would make them worse off, compared to barely one in six – 17 per cent – who expect a boost.
Boosting growth was the government’s “number one priority”. Keir Starmer has said his government should be judged by whether it has put more money in people’s pockets – disposable income – by the end of the Parliament.
Reeves’s biggest move was to freeze tax thresholds for another three years until 2031. This will mean an extra 1.8m people will pay more tax, or pay tax for the first time, as wage increases drag them into tax bands that will have remained the same since 2022/23.
The Chancellor has been under intense pressure to balance the books while sticking to her manifesto pledges not to raise income tax, VAT or employee national insurance, and she denied extending the tax threshold was a manifest breach in spirit.
Voters leaned towards thinking that the Budget – which places greater burdens on wealthy taxpayers, such as with the ‘mansion tax’ with the extra revenue mostly going to poorer people such as those hit by the two-child benefit cap which will now be lifted – will help the less well-off.
The Chancellor’s approval ratings are lowConcerns about economic growth
Twenty six per cent said the poor would be the main beneficiaries with 23 per cent expecting the rich to do better.
The poll found that on balance people believe the Budget will harm economic growth, the ability of businesses to invest, the amount of money available for public services, and the level of inflation. But it will help to reduce poverty levels, voters said.
Despite the generally negative views of the Budget as a whole, and of Reeves personally – her net approval ratings now stand at -37 – voters tend to approve of most of the individual tax and spending changes contained in it.
Higher gambling taxes, a freeze in rail fares, an increase to the minimum wage and a new “mansion tax” on homes worth more than £2m are all apparently very popular, with a solid majority of those polled backing them.
By smaller margins, voters also approve of extending the “sugar tax” to milkshakes and imposing a new levy on electric cars.
The Budget is the least popular since Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss’s mini-BudgetEven the decision to freeze income tax thresholds for another three years, which will take money away from almost every worker, is backed by 40 per cent of those surveyed with 33 per cent opposed.
Scrapping two-child benefit cap supported and opposed equally
Opinions on scrapping the two-child cap are evenly balanced: 38 per cent are in favour and the same proportion against.
The most unpopular measures are putting a cap on salary sacrifice pension savings and cutting the maximum that under-65s can save into a Cash ISA each year, both of which are opposed by more people than support them.
Robert Struthers of BMG said: “The public do not like this Budget. It is the worst rated in terms of how people feel about it overall and how they expect it to affect them personally since the Truss-Kwarteng ‘mini Budget’.
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“For a party who say their main aim is to improving living standards for working people, the public appear to be concluding the opposite. Almost half expect to be worse off, the highest figure we have recorded in any immediate post-Budget poll.
“Labour nonetheless announced some individually popular policies. The youth guarantee, rail fairs freeze, the rise in the minimum wage and the mansion tax all command high levels of support.
“The clear danger is that the more divisive removal of the two-child limit and other less popular tax changes overshadows any positives. Or, more broadly, that popular individual measures cannot shift a wider perception of economic decline, pressure on household budgets, or doubts about the competence of the party delivering them.”
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