George Osborne, the new Chancellor, is set to present an emergency budget on June 22nd in order to reduce government borrowing, and a new YouGov survey suggests that many believe there will be sacrifices made to see this reduction happen. An overwhelming 70% believe they will be paying higher taxes or see reduced benefits from the emergency budget, compared to 10% who believe they will not pay higher taxes or see a reduction in benefits. On top of this, nearly half (49%) said that the budget will not be fair in the way it affects the rich and the poor. Only 26% believe it will be fair in this respect.
The public are split on whether the quality of public services suffer in the budget. A third (34%) believe that the budget will ensure that the quality of front-line services, such as education and the NHS, will not be harmed, while 36% feel they will not be protected. The Conservative Liberal coalition can however take heart from the lack of substantial support for Labour’s claim that immediate public sector cuts could put the country back into recession. During the three live debates, and throughout the entire electoral campaign, Gordon Brown cast the Conservative plan for immediate public sector cuts as jeopardising a fragile recovery from recession. However, around a quarter (24%) agree that the emergency budget will lead to a double dip recession, compared to 35% who thought this was not a danger. 41% did not know.
It seems that George Osbourne’s target of £6bn cuts, a snippet of the £163bn budget deficit facing the Conservative-Liberal coalition, has seen many preparing for more meagre times, but for now, many are keeping faith with the Tory solution to the deficit.
