This is despite the vast majority of Britons agreeing that the public finances are in a bad state
Ahead of the Spring Statement, a new YouGov survey finds that 80% of Britons believe the public finances are in a poor state, including 34% who say they are in a “very bad” state. A mere 3% consider the government to be in a good place financially, while 13% see the situation as neither good nor bad.
While Labour continue to frame their tough spending decisions as having to fix the Conservatives’ mess – and will hope to be able to still do so by the time of the next election – the public are gradually moving away from this perception. A YouGov survey shortly after the 2024 general election found that 30% of Britons believed that any tax increases would be due to Labour’s hands being forced by the poor finances left by the Conservatives – that figure has since fallen to 22%.
Almost four in ten (38%) would now see tax increases as a choice of the Labour government, up from 32%, while 30% would see it as an even mixture of the two (from 27%).
Britons don't want to increase taxes or cut spending - so what would they do?
Governments looking to improve the public finances have three broad levers to pull: spending, borrowing, and taxes.
Public opinion is most clear when it comes to borrowing, with 42% wanting to see borrowing reduced. Three in ten (30%) say it should be kept at current levels, while only 8% want to increase borrowing.
However, it seems almost certain that the government’s financial approach will revolve around making cuts to public spending. But just 25% of Britons say the government should cut spending at this time, falling to 13% among Labour voters.
Instead, 27% of Britons think that spending increases are the right move (38% among Labour voters), while 31% think spending should be kept at its current levels.
Labour pledged in their manifesto not to increase income tax, national insurance, and VAT, which effectively rules out substantive tax increases at the coming Spring Statement. Only 18% of Britons think Labour’s future financial direction should include tax increases, with the majority split between wanting to keep them at current levels (34%) or cutting them (33%).
If we look at answers from across all three questions, the most common combined approach Britons think the government should take is to cut taxes, cut spending, and cut borrowing – albeit at only 11%. This is the most favoured combined approach among Reform UK voters, with 30% giving these answers collectively.
The status quo is the second most common set of answers, with 8% saying spending, borrowing and tax should remain at current levels. This is the modal answer among Labour voters, although only 10% say so.
With so few Britons in favour of the pulling one of the big three levers the government has to improve the nation’s financial situation, what is it that the public would do to improve our circumstances?
We asked the public to tell us, in their own words, what the number one thing they think should do to improve the public finances is, categorising the results with YouGov’s AI-powered Topic Quantifier.
Topping the list, at 16%, is raising taxes on the rich, rising to 29% of Labour voters and 22% of Lib Dems. YouGov research has previously shown that taxing the rich and businesses are about the only methods that most Britons support for increasing funding for public services.
An equally popular move, at 16%, is to reduce immigration and/or spending that is currently directed to migrants and asylum seekers. Fully 45% of Reform UK voters wrote in an answer that falls under this category, as did 25% of Tories – in both cases, it was their most common answer.
Reducing the benefits bill and tackling welfare fraud is also one of the more common categories, at 7%, with 5% also suggesting cutting the foreign aid bill and an identical 5% saying the priority should be on reducing waste and bureaucracy.
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Photo: Getty
