Exclusive: Survey of UK voters reveals three quarters would back keeping taxes the same or seeing them rise

Exclusive new opinion polling from Channel 4 News and DeltaPoll reveals three quarters of voters would back keeping taxes the same or seeing them rise, if it means safeguarding public services.

The poll of 1,500 GB voters, conducted between 23-26 February is released today ahead of the Spring Budget 2024 next week.

The new data shows that more than four in ten respondents (41%) believed that taxes and public spending should be kept at the level they are now. A further third (34%) said they would like to see taxes increased with greater spending on public services, while one in seven (14%) believed that taxes and public spending should be reduced.  Among Conservative voters, that figure rose only marginally to one in six (17%).

When asked to rank a list of economic priorities, voters placed cutting taxes fourth (11%), after growing the economy (23%), reducing inflation (22%), and investing in public service (12%), with 8% choosing to prioritise reducing the national debt, a cornerstone of Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ economic policy.

The findings come ahead of a special report tonight from Channel 4 News’ Economics Correspondent who speaks to the report’s author, Joe Twyman, co-founder and director of DeltaPoll.

Speaking on the findings, Twyman, the former Head of Political at YouGov said:

“It’s clear from the trends that the Conservatives have a serious problem when it comes to convincing people that they are the best party on the economy. For nine months now there’s been virtually no movement for the Conservatives at all. It’s Labour who have been ahead and ahead by some distance. And then looking forward to the Budget – you see that actually many of the levers available to the conservatives, such as lowering taxes, are simply not seen as the top priority for voters.”

Indeed, when asked more broadly about the state of the UK economy and causes for the current outlook, just under one in three (32%) attributed perceived woes to the current UK government – cited almost as frequently as Brexit (30%) and Covid-19 (30%).

When it came to those who would still vote Conservative, only one in twenty (5%) thought the Government was responsible, compared to more than a third (35%) of former Conservative voters.

Current Conservative voters were more likely to attribute the economic situation to wider political and socio-economic factors, including Covid (49%), the world economy (45%) and the war in Ukraine (41%)

On perceptions of delivery under this government, just over one in four (26%) of all respondents said they believed a reduction in inflation had been achieved, with just one in six (16%) believing the Conservatives had grown the economy, and one in nine (12%) that they had reduced national debt.

Commenting on those trends in perception, Twyman, added:

“The Conservative’s position on the economy started to deteriorate under Boris Johnson during his final months in office. It then declined significantly under Liz Truss. Rishi Sunak was able to pull back a little bit. But really for the last nine months, there’s been no movement, statistically at all. He hasn’t been able to close the gap. In fact, on many occasions the gap has actually grown compared to Labour.”