The public are more likely to say they are larger, and more unfair
‘Austerity’ became the shorthand for the programme of cuts undertaken by the coalition government from 2010 onwards, and in recent weeks that term has likewise been adopted to refer to the new Labour government’s own spending cuts.
But do the public see the two agendas of financial retrenchment as comparable?
In fact, Britons seem to think that Labour’s current cuts are worse than those the country endured in the 2010s.
Three in ten Britons (30%) say they think the current government is making bigger spending cuts than the coalition government made in 2015 – twice the number who think the coalition made bigger cuts (15%). A further 16% see the current cuts as being comparable in size to those of the coalition era.
It is a similar story in terms of fairness. A third of Britons (33%) see the current cuts as more unfair than the coalition’s, three times the number who think they are fairer, with 18% seeing them as about equal.
This negative perception is predominantly, however, driven by Labour’s political rivals. Fully half (49-50%) of Tory and Reform UK voters say the government’s cuts are more unfair than the coalition’s, with 43% likewise saying they are larger than those from 2010-2015. Labour voters, by contrast, are relatively evenly split across the three answer options, on both questions.
When it comes to whether the past and present cuts were justified, the public split on both counts, splitting approximately 30%-30% in both cases, with the rest unsure.
There is more variation when it comes to different voting groups. Labour voters are more likely to think the current government’s cuts are necessary (37%, vs 25% who say they are not). By contrast 41% of Labour voters think the coalition’s cuts weren’t necessary (41%) with only 21% believing that they were.
By contrast, Conservative voters tend to suggest the coalition’s cuts were necessary, at a rate of 47% to 16%, while also being more likely to endorse the current cuts as well. They are more divided on the current cuts, which 29% say are necessary versus 34% who say they aren’t.
What do you think about the coalition government's record, Labour's current agenda, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
Photo: Getty
