Only one in ten people now thinks that Labour is doing a good job in government as Sir Keir Starmer experiences a cliff-edge collapse in support unprecedented in the modern era.
Exclusive polling data published in today’s Mail on Sunday is also likely to shake Chancellor Rachel Reeves – by revealing only 2 per cent of those surveyed think the economy is in good shape.
The research, by former Conservative deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft, concludes many 2024 Labour voters are experiencing profound ‘buyer’s remorse’, with a third of those who switched from the Conservatives to Labour saying that they wished they had made a different choice.
Those who voted Labour last year put their chances of doing so again at the next election at an average of only 59 out of 100.
Lord Ashcroft concludes that the haemorrhage in support is due to a combination of factors, ‘including winter fuel allowance cuts, rising small-boat migration, tax rises, the struggling economy, broken promises and the lavish supply of free accommodation, tickets, clothes and spectacles we now know the Prime Minister and his colleagues enjoyed while decrying their opponents’ cronyism’.
The scale of the disenchantment, just six months after Sir Keir won a landslide general election, is revealed when voters are asked how the Labour Government’s decisions have affected them.
Just 5 per cent said ‘positively’, while 43 per cent – including nearly a quarter of Labour supporters – said ‘negatively’.
Just one in five voters are optimistic about the future. A clear majority, 57 per cent, think that Britain is not ‘on the right track’, while 82 per cent do not think that the economy is in good shape.
Only one in ten people now thinks that Labour is doing a good job in government, research by former Conservative deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft has found
The respondents blamed the current malaise on a mixture of Labour policies, the actions of the last Tory Government and global forces.
The Prime Minister’s only comfort is the apparent lack of a strong alternative.
When asked who is acting as the most effective Opposition, the largest response – 27 per cent – is ‘no one’, followed by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK on 26 per cent and Kemi Badenoch’s Tories on 14 per cent.
The Labour leader still comes out on top of the ‘best prime minister’ ratings, with 31 per cent choosing him, followed by Mr Farage on 21 per cent and Ms Badenoch on 11 per cent.
His collapse in support could also be partly offset if Sir Keir proceeds with plans to give the vote to 16 and 17-year-olds, who are historically averse to backing the Tories. A majority of voters, 54 per cent, oppose the plan.
The research also found that only 28 per cent of voters think that ministers’ green taxes are worth the impact on their household finances.
Respondents were also asked about rumours that the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, might donate to Reform. Only one third would be happy for him to do so.
The research gives the thumbs down to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s determination to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030.
The new research appears to be bad news for Sir Keir and his Chancellor Rachel Reeves (pictured together)
More than six in ten voters, including a majority of 2024 Labour voters, said they thought achieving these green goals would mean higher costs for themselves.
Lord Ashcroft writes in today’s MoS that few voters ‘feel that the Government has a sense of purpose, or have any confidence in the prime minister to get a grip.
‘There is little sense that a plan exists to tackle the country’s lingering crises in the economy, immigration and public services’.
A total of 5,251 people were sampled between January 16 and 20.
