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Ahead of next week’s Spending Review, new polling reveals that almost two thirds (64%) of Labour MPs believe the government’s fiscal rules make it harder for the government to keep its promises to raise living standards, improve public services and tackle climate change.
With the Spending Review widely predicted to include cuts for many government departments, the majority of Labour MPs (59%) think that spending cuts would have a negative impact on the government’s ability to keep its promises.
The polling, conducted by Survation, also finds that close to two thirds (65%) of Labour MPs think the government should respond to ongoing global economic uncertainty by changing course on fiscal policy in order to fund public investment and spending.
This includes 32% of Labour MPs who think the government should reform its fiscal rules to create space for investment and spending. 11% of Labour MPs think the government should raise taxes, while 22% support reforming fiscal rules and raising taxes.
So far the Chancellor has been unwilling to support further tax rises or changes to the fiscal framework, relying instead on spending cuts to meet her self-imposed fiscal rules – spending cuts which some have blamed for Labour’s disappointing local election results last month.
Labour MPs’ worries about spending cuts are well-founded: a separate national poll conducted by YouGov reveals that voters who backed Labour at last year’s general election are overwhelmingly opposed to cutting spending for public services. 59% of Labour 2024 voters would prefer to see taxes or borrowing rise rather than cuts to spending for public services, while only 13% would prefer cuts to public services over increases to taxes or borrowing.
In fact Labour’s fraying electoral coalition is united in its opposition to spending cuts. 66% of 2024 Labour voters who still support the party don’t want to see spending for public services cut even if that means raising taxes or borrowing. This number is even higher for Labour-Green switchers (68%) and Labour-Liberal Democrat switchers (70%).
Most strikingly, 41% of voters who backed Labour in 2024 but who now intend to vote for Reform also prefer tax or borrowing increases to public service spending cuts. This is compared to only 27% of Labour-Reform switchers who would prefer to see spending for public services cut rather than raise taxes or borrowing.
These two surveys, which were commissioned by the Invest in Britain campaign, add to the growing evidence that a decision to boost funds for public services and investment would be supported by both the public and Labour MPs.
Louis Willis, Director of the Invest in Britain campaign, said:
“The government’s fiscal approach is getting in the way of delivering the change it promised to voters, and which the country so badly needs.
These results show a groundswell of support among both Labour MPs and the party’s voter coalition for a change of course. People want to see our crumbling public services restored and would support increases to taxes or borrowing to fund them.”
ENDS
Notes to editors: