So more members of our Conservative Party members’ panel don’t support the Government’s economic policy than support it. This is a bleak finding for Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt.
What do they want instead? Our October survey suggested that part of the answer is lower taxes – no surprise there. About one in four respondents wanted the then Government to cut taxes and borrow money: the Liz Truss policy. Roughly two in five wanted tax cuts and lower spending.
Jeremy Hunt is promising the latter. But the slower rise in public spending, to put it more accurately, is mostly pushed back until after the most likely date of the general election. The panel also, not at all consistently, then backed Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s growth plan (that’s the one announced in the mini-Budget with no spending slowdown) by 65 per cent to 27 per cent.
Perhaps the best way of reading this finding is the most simple – as a cry of pain from the panel as prices rise, the economy slows, and the tax burden moves towards its highest level since World War Two.