A poll conduced at the end of February by Ipsos-MORI for The Economist shows that the economy continues to be the public's most pressing concern. This is potentially a double-edged sword for Labour. The public still blame Labour, rather than the banks for the deficit. Moving beyond that will be easier said than done.
A poll conduced at the end of February by Ipsos-MORI for The Economist shows that the economy continues to be the public’s most pressing concern.
This is potentially a double-edged sword for Labour.
With the increasingly influential presence of Lynton Crosby in the Tory camp, not to mention the loss of the Eastleigh by-election, David Cameron will come under increasing pressure from Tory backbenchers to shift policy further to the Right.
Nothing new here of course.
An excellent (separate) piece for the Economist today notes that in the run up to the 2005 election, an emboldened Tory Right sought to “shift…emphasis [in the party] away from public services towards immigration, crime and, of course, Europe…”.
They largely succeeded, resulting in a calamitous electoral defeat for Tory leader Michael Howard in a winnable election.
Backbench ideologues rarely learn lessons from history, so expect Cameron to face similar demands as worried MPs sense weakness on the back of humiliations like that in Eastleigh.
Labour can, indeed, take a degree of solace from the prospect of the Tories scrabbling around to prevent their core vote indulging Nigel Farage’s protest party.
No more than a degree of solace, though.
While Ed Miliband has been wise to turn his attention to economic concerns of late in the form of (largely symbolic) policy proposals on the mansion tax and the 10p tax rate, Labour is still suffering badly when voters are asked about the economy, as a poll for YouGov this week showed.
Q a) Which party would handle Britain’s economy best?
Q b) Who would you trust more to run the economy?
| a) Which party? | b) Which team? | ||||||
| Con | Lab | Other/ Don’t know | Cameron/ Osborne | Miliband/ Balls | Not sure | ||
| % | % | % | % | % | % | ||
| Apr 2012 | 28 | 27 | 45 | 36 | 28 | 35 | |
| Jul 2012 | 27 | 26 | 47 | 34 | 31 | 35 | |
| Oct 2012 | 26 | 28 | 46 | n/a | n/a | n/a | |
| Dec 2012 | 28 | 27 | 45 | 37 | 26 | 37 | |
| Feb 2013 | 27 | 29 | 44 | 35 | 29 | 37 |
As Peter Kelner phrased it:
“Almost three years after Gordon Brown left Downing Street, more people still blame Labour rather than the Conservatives for the state of the economy and the public spending cuts that Osborne has imposed. Secondly, when asked who they trust more to run the economy, more people still prefer Cameron and Osborne to Miliband and Balls.”
While Labour is right to focus on the economy – it is voters’ main concern and Osborne is the government’s biggest liability – doing so is a double-edged sword. It is potentially Labour’s strongest area of attack, but it also risks a damaging boomerang effect.
Moving beyond the fact that the public appear to still blame Labour, rather than the banks, for the deficit will be easier said than done.
In the public mind, the party is still stuck in the Gordon Brown era, and the failure to win the argument in 2009/10 that it was the banks rather than the government which was to blame for the crisis still hangs around the party’s neck like an albatros.
142 Responses to “Labour is still struggling to leave the Brown era behind”
robertcp
People are quite right to blame Labour for 2009-10 because it was in government. However, it is also clear that the Coalition has made terrible mistakes since 2010, which is why Labour is in the lead at the moment. People are not idiots!
Mick
Let’s read that quote again: “Almost three years after Gordon Brown left Downing Street, more people still blame Labour rather than the Conservatives for the state of the economy and the public spending cuts that Osborne has imposed. Secondly, when asked who they trust more to run the economy, more people still prefer Cameron and Osborne to Miliband and Balls.”
The Conservatives inherited the weakened economy and knew they had to take some unpopular measures to try and right the ship. Tories are intelligent enough to know it wasn’t going to be a sing-song, though things like the Bedroom Tax haven’t been exactly needed. The public aren’t enjoying it either and polls suggest people either steel themselves and see the bigger picture or feel bitter that they are put out anyway.
But as for Labour then, well…. considering New Labour made the party repeatedly electable for the first time EVER, then the party would be wise to examine what can be salvaged of New Labour rather than trying to veer back to the wilderness.
Yes Labour, the wilderness. Where Michael Foot existed for years in his cave.
Mick
A hotchpotch of bits here. Labour should indeed be a party of key principles. And if they’re rubbish, it either reforms or goes to the wall. New Labour chose reform.
Coalitions – the method by which the tail wags the dog. ‘Force’ other parties to adopt similar policies to the little loser. In other words, festering a rotten government in the name of dogma. Which is effectively what you’d get all the time with PR, so well done to even Labour for rejecting it.
Credibility does little without power. Labour has to strike balances, which is what every party has to do to win power. The public’s not a homogenous mass. Then there’s the world of business and industry to consider.
Mick
Yeah, bad old days of 1997. Everyone was downtrodden and nobody had any money. (Though under Labour previously, there was runaway hyper inflation, crippling strikes, people were taxed ’till their wallets bled and Britain had to go cap in hand to the IMF. Sick Man Of Europe.) Then came NEW LABOUR and then… BANG! We went to war, terrorist cells mushroomed across the land, the European Union’s one step closer to being a country with us as a province and Brown sold our gold reserves. Plus he spent all spare cash in the Treasury, leaving us naked to face the Credit Crunch.
Political correctness hit maximum setting, so even local councils used anti-terror legislation to punish people putting the ‘wrong’ rubbish in their dustbins. There was lots and lots of rubbish. Meanwhile, tax went up along with anti social disorder of many kinds. But never mind, a few peripheral bits of law about gays fixed those problems and the place was hunky-dory.
Until those wicked Tories came back again. Raaarggh!
Mick
…And people could own their own houses quite safely. Nice to have your own front door. As long as they could keep a job to pay off the mortgage and not buy a flat in a high-rise or something.
And people were in DANGER under Labour of losing their houses – remember Squatters Rights or Prescott wanting to impound spare houses left unoccupied for a few months?