Majority of UK Public Against Tax Cuts, Supports More Public Services Spending, Poll Reveals

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, the two contenders for Tory leadership, locked horns over how to lessen the cost of living crisis on UK households, with the former chancellor vowing to introduce a new package of support, and the Foreign Secretary continuing to push a low-tax agenda.

Although the Tory leadership contest to replace Boris Johnson has been dominated by the issue of tax cuts, the latest Opinium poll found this was not uppermost in the average Briton's mind.

Rather than demanding tax cuts, a majority of the British public would like to see the two remaining contenders in the race - Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, and former chancellor Rishi Sunak - concentrating on raising spending on public services, such as funding of schools and the NHS, the survey in weekly newspaper The Observer has found.

Opinium polled 2,010 people online between 3 and 5 August to discover that about a third (34 percent) think that taxes and spending on public services should remain at present levels.

Some 26 percent of those surveyed would even prefer taxes to be raised to allow for an increase in public services funding. Only 22 percent said that taxes should be reduced.

The poll also showed that among those who voted Conservative at the previous election, 41 percent wanted tax and spending levels to remain as they are.

A cut in taxes was supported by 27 percent, with 22 percent of those surveyed saying they would welcome an increase in taxes to cover public spending costs.

The poll revealed that about a quarter (24 percent) fear that tax cuts would only serve to raise inflation. The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) - a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid for a market basket of consumer goods and services - rose by 9.4 percent in the 12 months to June 2022. UK inflation is heading for 13 percent in 2022, the Bank of England warned last week, adding that the UK faces plummeting household incomes amid a recession that will last more than a year.

The Opinium poll showed that 12 percent of the British public agree with Truss that tax cuts were needed to make the rate go down, and 24 percent believed that it would not make any difference.

As for the Tory leadership contest, the Opinium poll also revealed that Tory voters appear to be increasingly in favor of Truss.

The proportion of 2019 Tory voters acknowledging that that the Foreign Secretary “looks like a prime minister in waiting” has risen from +5 percent to +28 percent overall since the last survey. Sunak has seen his rating drop from +14 percent to +6 percent.

Overall, 48 percent of Tory voters from 2019 believe that Truss would be the best prime minister, whereas no more than 22 percent are opting for Sunak.

At present, Truss is seen as frontrunner to walk through the door of No 10 on 6 September.

Tory voters at present rate Truss “up by double digit amounts” according to Adam Drummond, associate director at Opinium.

“Tory voters think they’re more likely to win the next election with Truss than Sunak and when the two candidates are put in head-to-head match-ups against Keir Starmer among all voters, Sunak trails by 4 (essentially the same as Boris Johnson) and Truss leads by 1, although the real winner in all of these head-to-heads is ‘none of these’, which is higher than any individual candidate,” he said, adding:

“But in October, energy prices are going up 70 percent and the Bank of England predicts a five-quarter recession, and any honeymoon the new prime minister gets is likely to be short-lived.”

Taxes Versus ‘Handouts’

In the latest verbal tussle between the two rivals, the former chancellor warned it was "wrong" of Truss to rule out further direct support to British households in the winter.

He was referring to the recent statement made by Truss to the Financial Times in which she vowed she would do things “in a Conservative way of lowering the tax burden, not giving out handouts".

Truss has promised tax cuts costing about £30Bln, reversing the increase in national insurance contributions and abandoning a planned increase in corporation tax.

However, Sunak warned that "inflation is a major danger" to the UK economy, saying that the Foreign Secretary’s tax proposals were “not going to help very significantly, people such as pensioners or those on low incomes who are exactly the kind of families that are going to need help." Sunak pledged he would "go further" than the support package of up to £1,200 he announced as chancellor and he vowed that business tax cuts will be prioritized if he should win the leadership contest, promising a 1p income tax cut in 2024.