Four out of 10 people say the country is in a worse state since July’s election, according to a new poll released as Sir Keir Starmer marks 100 days in 10 Downing Street on Saturday.
But Friday’s poll by YouGov also found that most voters still think Sir Keir’s Government will do a good job or want to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Overall, 39% say the country is in a worse state since the general election, which returned the first Labour Government in 14 years. Nearly half of those who voted Labour in the election (47%) say they had positive expectations, but feel let down so far.
However, 37% didn’t hold high hopes for the new Government but are willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, while 17% are sure they’ll do a good job. Of the remainder, 39% didn’t hold high hopes and are sure they’ll do a bad job.
The Prime Minister’s honeymoon has been dramatically short after a summer of rows including over the Government’s plan to restrict winter fuel payments for pensioners, as Chancellor Rachel Reeves prepares to find savings in her first Budget on October 30.
The fuel measure is seen negatively by 55% of people in the poll, while two-thirds of Britons (68%) disapproved of the Government’s decision to release some prisoners early to avoid prison overcrowding - a result, ministers said, of the Conservatives’ failure to plan when they were in power.
Other measures are proving more popular: 61% backed the Government’s pay deal to end strikes by junior doctors, while clear majorities (56-57%) approved of suspending some arms sales to Israel, lifting a ban on building onshore wind farms, and maintaining the two-child cap on certain welfare benefits.
Sir Keir’s scrapping of the Conservatives’ plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda had 44% approval against 38% disapproval. The public appeared evenly split on agreeing new pay deals with striking train drivers and the new Government’s handling of Far-right rioters over the summer.
