ITV News Index 29 November 2011

The latest ITV News Index published on 29th November 2011.

Date Published: 29 Nov 2011

Categories: Economy | Politics | Public and communities | UK

Description

COMRES/ ITV NEWS POLL: MAJORITY SAY GOVERNMENT HAS ‘LOST CONTROL’ OF ECONOMY

Most people believe the Government has lost control of the UK economy and almost half the public say they are ‘not confident’ that George Osborne is making the right decisions for the UK economy, according to the latest ComRes/ITV News Index.  Fieldwork was conducted before today’s Autumn Statement.

The poll suggests that while some of the individual announcements from today’s Statement will gain approval from the public, overall the mood is one of pessimism about the likely success of the Chancellor’s wider actions to boost confidence.  Disturbingly, a majority of the public also believes the Government has lost control of the economy.

One notably popular measure is the scrapping of the 3p tax increase on fuel.  Seventy-one per cent said it ‘will make my life easier’ although more than three-quarters, 76%, said the Chancellor should have gone further and announced an immediate cut in fuel duty.

The public also express support for the Government’s attempt to stimulate the economy by boosting public spending on big infrastructure projects, although at 48% agreement this support is far from overwhelming.  However, just 20% said they disagreed with the programme of infrastructure spending, while a further 32% said they did not know.

The bigger picture, though, is of public pessimism.  When asked whether they were ‘confident that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, is making the right decisions for the UK economy’, 46% disagreed and 25% agreed, while 29% said they didn’t know.

When asked whether they felt the Coalition Government has the right policies to ensure the British economy grows, a similar proportion, 27%, agreed, while 46% disagreed.  Twenty-seven per cent said they did not know.

The public also expressed unease over the continued programme of spending cuts.  Fifty-nine per cent agreed that ‘if the British economy doesn’t pick up very soon, the Government should scale back its programme of spending cuts’.  Twenty-four per cent disagreed and 18% said they did not know.

Perhaps most worryingly of all, however, was that more than half of all adults, 52%, said they thought the Government ‘has lost control of the economy’.  One third (32%) disagreed and 16% said they did not know.

ComRes interviewed 2050 GB adults online between 25th and 27th November 2011.  Data were weighted to be demographically representative of all GB adults.  ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.