Rachel Reeves has been slashed as the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, with a £22 billion deficit in the public finances set to be tackled. A new poll has revealed that it is not yet clear who Reeves will be.
Four in ten Britons “don’t know” whether they are happy with the way the Chancellor of the Exchequer is carrying out his job, an Ipsos poll for The Standard has revealed.
The 41% rate is higher than the rate for Chancellors in office since 2016, including George Osborne, Philip Hammond, Sajid Javid, Rishi Sunak, Kwasi Kwarteng and Jeremy Hunt.
Thirty-four percent say they are satisfied with Reeves’ tenure at the Treasury, while 25 percent say they are dissatisfied.
That is better than Mr Kwarteng’s 12 per cent satisfaction and 65 per cent dissatisfaction rating in October 2022, and better than Mr Hunt, who never achieved positive ratings, but not as good as Mr Sunak, who had much higher satisfaction figures at the start of his tenure at the Treasury.
The findings came after Ms Reeves flew to the Canadian cities of New York and Toronto to conduct business in the UK amid the new government’s efforts to boost economic growth for better public services.
Ms Reeves claims she has inherited a £22bn black hole in the public finances, a claim her predecessor Mr Hunt firmly denies.
Ahead of the July 4 general election, the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that there was a “conspiracy of silence” among the main political parties over the dire state of the public finances and that tax increases, cuts to public spending or more borrowing would be required regardless of who won.
In a recent statement, it was stated that some of the deficit in public finances was not known before the election, but other elements were known.
The new Finance Minister has announced steps to reduce spending on roads, rail and hospitals, limit winter fuel payments to pensioners and make tougher decisions on welfare and public spending with tax increases in the autumn budget.
Fieldwork polling conducted before the riots showed Sir Keir Starmer’s net satisfaction rating had risen from -19 as Leader of the Opposition to +7 as Prime Minister.
While 37 percent say they are satisfied with his performance, 30 percent say they are not satisfied. Before the July 4 elections, these rates were 33 percent and 52 percent, respectively.
Mr Sunak’s net satisfaction ratings have also risen from -55 before the election to -35 now, while Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey’s net satisfaction ratings have risen from minus five to +10.
While 48% said they were unhappy with the new government, 27% said they were happy with it. The net score was -21, compared with -71 for Sunak’s government in June.
But a majority (52%) think the Labour government’s policies will improve public services in the long term – the highest score since the Blair government in June 2001 – but 39% disagree.
Forty-eight percent think the government’s policies will boost the economy in the long term, while 43 percent disagree – the most optimistic rate since November 2015, a year before the Brexit referendum.
Three-quarters of Britons (77%) say public services have deteriorated over the last five years, up from 63% in March 2017, 42% in September 2015 and 40% in November 2012.
Keiran Pedley, Ipsos policy director, said: “While the public are more optimistic about aspects of life in Britain than before the General Election, many remain undecided about Keir Starmer as Prime Minister and Rachel Reeves as Chancellor of the Exchequer.”
“This is not surprising considering that the new government is only a month old.
“Ultimately, a Labour government will be judged by how it deals with the crises that confront it and whether it delivers on the long-term priorities of the voters who brought it to power: improving the cost of living and improving public services.”
There is still pessimism about when the NHS will recover, with 34% of respondents saying it will happen in the next few years and 42% saying it will not. But this is more optimistic than the figures from last November, when the figures were 16% and 64% respectively.
Half of Britons (52%) think the cost of living crisis will get worse in the coming years, while 24% think it will ease.
However, the public is more optimistic that the situation in the UK workforce will improve rather than worsen when it comes to skills (33% better/28% worse), public transport (32%/24%) and opportunities for young people (37%/33%).
The public is divided on whether the quality of education will improve (30%/29%), but they are more optimistic than they were when the Conservatives were in power in November (15%/44% respectively).
But only 17 percent think policing in their area will improve over the next few years (+7 since November), while 32 percent think it will get worse (-10 from nine months ago).
While 27 percent believe environmental quality will improve, 36 percent take the opposite view, giving it a score of -9 compared to -30 in November.
*Ipsos surveyed 1,003 adults across the UK by phone between July 24-30. Data is weighted.