Corbyn and McDonnell are 33 points behind May and Hammond on economic competence

Left Foot Forward

Amid economic chaos, voters still trust the Tories more than Labour

 

It’s the week of the Autumn Statement, the government is facing a £100bn black hole in the budget, and neither the Prime Minister nor the Chancellor is remotely prepared for the economic consequences of Brexit.

And yet, according to new ICM polling, 48 per cent of the public believe that Theresa May and Philip Hammond are best-equipped to manage the economy, compared to 15 per cent who feel Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell would be better.

Even among Labour voters, just 34 per cent believe the party’s leadership team is more economically competent, compared to 28 per cent who back May and Hammond.

That’s a six-point lead for the Labour leadership among Labour voters, while the Conservative leadership holds an 88-point lead among Conservative voters.

Although polls should be taken with a pinch of salt, this must be read as a serious indictment either of Labour’s economic policy, or of the leadership’s capacity to communicate its ideas to the public.

As ICM’s Martin Boon outlines:

“It’s hard to think that the current Labour team can change so many minds, unless Brexit undoes the solid impression of Tory economic competence. Their 33-point deficit is worse than any endured by the two Ed’s of Miliband and Balls, who improved on this measure from their low point of a 27-point deficit, but not by any means enough to challenge Cameron and Osborne in the 2015 election.”

In terms of net approval ratings, May holds a 56 point advantage over Jeremy Corbyn (+22 to -34). Just one in five respondents believe the Labour leader is doing a good job.

See also: Dear Philip Hammond: Stop the cuts and back the NHS in Autumn Statement

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7 Responses to “Corbyn and McDonnell are 33 points behind May and Hammond on economic competence”

  1. Martyn Wood-Bevan

    The reality is that most people are ignorant on economics. The Tory approach to Economics is woeful but people remain ignorant or ill-informed. Corbyn and McDonnell have a much better economic policy but the MSM will rarely inform people of what it is. Pointless article.

  2. ted francis

    Imran Khan. You mean like people who don’t know the difference between a sentence fragment and a correctly constructed sentence? Oh dear.

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