Majority of the public reject Osborne’s austerity plan

Poll shows that neither Cameron nor Miliband are trusted to perform safe cuts.

Poll shows that neither Cameron nor Miliband are trusted to perform safe cuts

A ComRes poll carried out for The Independent shows that the majority of the public rejects George Osborne’s plan to cut public spending faster to clear the deficit.

Only 30 per cent of people agree that government spending should be reduced faster, even if this means cutting public services, while 66 per cent disagree with this approach. This means the public disagree with Osborne’s austerity plan by a 2-1 margin.

As the chancellor publishes his Charter for Budget Responsibility, aimed at clearing the deficit on day-to-day spending on services by 2017-18, the ComRes poll found that 36 per cent of people support such a legal requirement to balance the books, while 59 per cent reject it.

People do not trust either David Cameron or Ed Miliband to cut public spending without damaging public services, despite both promising to do so. The two leaders had identical scores in this part of the poll, with 28 per cent of people saying they trusted them to safely cut spending and 67 per cent saying they do not.

As in the previous ComRes survey for the Independent, Labour has a three point lead.

Labour is on 32 per cent (up one point), the Conservatives on 29 per cent (up one point), UKIP on 16 per cent (down two points), the Liberal Democrats on 12 per cent (up three points), the Greens on 5 per cent (down two points) and others on 6 per cent (down one point).

21 Responses to “Majority of the public reject Osborne’s austerity plan”

  1. swat

    Well they would wouldn’t they? Ask a stupid question and you get a stupid answer.
    The question that should have been asked was: Which Party’s Auterity Programme would you accept 1 Tory 2 Labour 3 Lib Dems 4 Ukip 5 Greens 6 Monster Raving Loony
    We’re getting Austerity whoever’s in Govt, like it or not.

  2. CGR

    Yep. Its payback time for the lost 7% of National Income that occured in 2007 & 2008 under Labour.

  3. Norfolk29

    However over 60% of them (voters) think Osborne is better than Balls at running the economy? One can ask why for all one likes but it is stupid to think that another five years of failure is going to cure the economic outlook of the UK and that is all Osborne can think of (and Cameron and IDS and all of the millionaires around the cabinet table).

  4. Norfolk29

    Payback for who? It is the poor and underpaid workers who are suffering. In a normal society it would be considered honourable to protect the weak. Not in this society where the strong (who are not suffering) think that austerity is a good thing. It will make them get job, insist on higher wages and better conditions when it is the same people who are forcing down wages and want to end the legislation that provides some employment protection. Payback time, indeed.

  5. Guest

    No surprise you’re looting as usual.

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