The run-up to Labour's first Budget has left the public with a feeling of 'national gloom'
Starmer and Reeves are under pressure to lift the mood among the public and MPs when they present the Labour government’s first Budget on WednesdayHowever, Reeves’ parliamentary colleagues are rapidly waking up to the fact that across much of the country, the predominant emotion surrounding the Budget is one of dread.
It is not a reaction limited to More in Common’s focus groups. Ed Shackle, head of qualitative research at the political consultancy Public First, paints a similar picture from the groups arranged by his own organisation.In the run up to the Budget, Mr Shackle said the message from Sir Keir Starmer’s Government to the British public has been unequivocal: “Brace for bad things.”
3. The dividend allowance is the amount of dividends you can earn tax-free in a year. The previous Government cut this from £5,000 to the current £500. Labour could reduce it further. This can be mitigated by transferring assets between partners and spouses, which are usually tax-free. The feeling of dread is of course partly explained by the fact that Britain was facing difficult decisions irrespective of who won the 2024 general election.about the policies which would be needed to put the nation’s finances in order after the twin shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The strategy is a repeat of the one used by David Cameron and George Osborne in 2010, when the Conservatives were able to push through austerity and lock their opponents out of power for a generation by arguing that Labour had left Britain with “no money” (as an “In 2010, people thought ‘okay I don’t like some of the Tories decisions, but it’s Labour’s fault so I’ll keep backing the Tories’. Now they think, ‘I don’t like some of these decisions, I don’t like the Tories for leaving the mess, but what I’m going to do is vote Green or for Reform UK’.”
Last week, a monthly survey of consumer morale by GfK showed that confidence slipped to its joint lowest this year. While the run-up to the Budget has created more dread than Labour would have liked, the hope among the party’s MPs is that it will give the Government an opportunity to tell a more positive story about where the country is going. Several MPs said the Chancellor’s decision to change the fiscal rules to permit more investment was a welcome step in that direction.
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