Carl Recine
Conservative hopes of a Budget bounce in the polls have quickly frittered away after successive polls showed the tax-cutting pledges rolled out by Jeremy Hunt have done little to revive the party’s fortunes.
Opinium’s weekly poll found that the chancellor’s announcement has provoked a muted reaction among the public.
Despite his key commitment to cut national insurance contributions, almost a third (31 per cent) think that levels of tax in the UK have actually increased.
A similar number (29 per cent) think they are unchanged, and only 17 per cent think that tax levels have been reduced as a result of the Budget.
Overall, 38 per cent think it was a bad budget, while only 18 per cent think it was good and 44 per cent are not sure. This is worse than how the Autumn Statement was received in November (23 per cent good, 27 per cent bad, 50 per cent not sure).
Elsewhere, a poll conducted on behalf of GB News has put Labour on 46 per cent of the vote and the Tories on just 18 per cent.
Reform UK, meanwhile, were in third place on 13 per cent and the Lib Dems were fourth on 10 per cent.
Posting on social media, Richard Tice said Reform UK is “coming for” the Conservatives after the poll put his party within five points of the Tories.
He tweeted:
Related: Sunak to perform ‘reverse Robin Hood’ to fund more pre-election tax cuts
