Labour Only Has A Year Of Being Able To Blame The Tories, Poll Suggests
3 min read
The public will lose patience with Labour blaming the Conservatives for the state of the country after the party has been in power for a year, a new poll suggests.
A Savanta survey conducted in the run-up to Labour Party conference in Liverpool this weekend, shared exclusively with PoliticsHome, indicates voters are currently willing to tolerate the new Labour Government claim that the problems they are dealing with are the fault of previous Tory governments.
Forty eight per cent of respondents said it was acceptable for the Keir Starmer administration to 'blame the previous government for the state of the country' after being in office 'for a few months', while 44 per cent told the pollster it was unacceptable.
That balance of opinion shifted, however, when the scenario was changed to Labour having been in power for twelve months.
Exactly half of people (50 per cent) said it would be unacceptable for the Government to blame the Tories for the state of the UK at that point, while 42 said it would be acceptable.
Since winning power in July, Prime Minister Starmer has repeatedly blamed 14 years of Conservative rule for the many major challenges facing his Labour government, like overcrowded prisons and NHS waiting times.
Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have also accused the Tories of leaving them a £22bn "black hole" in the public finances that has forced them to take difficult steps like cutting the winter fuel payment to pensioners and cancelling infrastructure projects.
In a speech last month, the Prime Minister warned more "painful" decisions were coming in the Autumn Budget, saying "we have no other choice given the situation that we're in".
Chris Hopkins, UK Political Research Director at Savanta, said the findings suggest voters are willing to give the Government "some time".
"Labour is being criticised by some for blaming everything on previous Conservative governments, but Savanta's research implies the public will give them some time — around a year — before the balance tips and blaming the Tories will no longer rub," he told PoliticsHome.
"Conservative voices criticising Labour's blame game have short memories: David Cameron and George Osborne (then Tory prime minister and chancellor) dined out on Labour 'crashing the economy' for what felt like a lifetime in the early 2010s.
"Labour are more than entitled to use similar messaging — if the public buy it.”
Hopkins warned, however, that Starmer must be wary of coming across as too gloomy.
Thirty five per cent of respondents said the Labour Government has been 'too negative about the challenges facing the UK'. This included 18 per cent of people who voted Labour on 4 July.
Twenty two per cent of people told Savanta Labour had been too positive since entering office, while 32 per cent of respondents said they had been realistic.
"There are Labour voters that believe Starmer's government is presenting too gloomy a picture, and while Cameron and Osborne had their coalition partners to absorb almost all of their austerity-driven ill-feeling, Starmer and Reeves have no such shield," said Hopkins.
Some Labour MPs fear the Government's messaging has been too negative since winning the election, and want Starmer to offer a more hopeful narrative when he delivers his first party conference speech as prime minister on Tuesday in Merseyside.
Savanta surveyed 2,232 people online between 13-15 September.
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