4 November 2024
Should Labour fear Kemi Badenoch?
From Luke Tryl, director of think tank More in Common: “During the Tory leadership campaign, we did lots of focus groups. Kemi was the candidate where people would say ‘oh she’s quite different isn’t she? Honest, direct, I want to hear more’, which is the key for me because when you’re in opposition that’s the question you’re answering: ‘how do I get people to actually listen to us?’”
The challenge for Badenoch – as with her ill-fated comments on maternity pay during the Conservative conference – is that voters may not always like what they hear.
3 November 2024
Rachel Reeves: I’ll get growth through reform of pensions and welfare
Luke Tryl, director of More in Common, said: “Labour’s gloomy pre-budget expectation management appears to have paid off: while the public aren’t exactly happy about the budget, and don’t think it will help them personally, there is a definite sense compared to the mood last week that things could have been worse."
"But there are warning signs — especially the fact that the public are now more likely than not to say that Labour have failed to keep their flagship promise not to raise taxes on working people.”
1 November 2024
Labour is stretching credulity – but soon, the elastic will go ‘ping!’
Voters in Scunthorpe who switched at the election from Conservative to Labour told Luke Tryl in a focus group for More in Common that “the way they are balancing things feels sneaky” but “I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt”.
They liked the extra spending on the NHS and seemed to reluctantly accept the tax rise, even if “they are taxing you around the back door” and “they’ve just changed the wording to suit themselves, but it’s still a tax”.
27 October 2024
There is also broad agreement between Labour and Tory voters, with 54 per cent from the former party thinking it's the wrong move and 60 per cent from the latter.
27 October 2024
Rachel Reeves’s Halloween budget: taxes and even bus fares up
According to a poll by the think tank More in Common, 71 per cent of voters are pessimistic about the budget. The top words used to describe how people feel about the budget are “worried”, “nervous”, and “apprehensive”.
The public’s key test for the government is fixing the NHS, but at this budget 54 per cent said the priority should be keeping taxes low compared with 31 per cent who prioritise investing in public services. The public rejects the “tough choices” narrative: 56 per cent believe Reeves can avoid both tax rises and spending cuts in the budget, despite government warnings — creating a dangerous expectation gap.
18 October 2024
Exclusive: Only One-Third Of Voters Oppose Hike In Bosses' National Insurance
In a major boost for the government, a poll by the More in Common think-tank also found that the same proportion of the public do not believe the move would break Labour’s election manifesto.
Luke Tryl, More in Common’s UK director, said: “While the Conservatives are trying to suggest a potential rise in employers’ National Insurance would breach their manifesto commitment, the public aren’t buying it."