Panic stations for Tories as poll finds Lib Dems surging in the ‘Blue Wall’ – with fears things will get even worse as interest rates rise again to put more pressure on mortgages
- The Liberal Democrats are now just four points behind them in the ‘Blue Wall’
- Voters rate both Sir Ed Davey and Sir Keir Starmer more highly than Rishi Sunak
The Tories are hemorrhaging support in their heartlands as affluent voters see interest rates hammer their mortgage repayments, a new poll suggests.
The Conservatives are under pressure from the Liberal Democrats, who are now just four points behind them in the ‘Blue Wall’ of seats mainly in the Home Counties.
A new poll by Redfield and Wilton Strategies puts Labour up 1 point on 34 per cent, the Tories down 4 points on 30 per cent and Sir Ed Davey’s party up 4 points on 26 per cent.
Voters also also rate both Sir Ed and Sir Keir Starmer more highly than Rishi Sunak.
And in a particularly alarming finding, almost half of voters (49 per cent) in these seats said they would be prepared to vote tactically at the next election.
This included more than 60 per cent of Labour voters, who could switch to back the Lib Dems in areas where Sir Keir’s party would be expected to come third.
The poll also found that support for the government’s actions to improve the cost-of-living crisis has fallen in the past month.
Little more than a quarter (27 per cent) believe Mr Sunk and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt are taking the right steps to address problems like high interest rates and soaring food price inflation.
The Conservatives are under pressure from the Liberal Democrats, who are now just four points behind them in the ‘Blue Wall’ of seats mainly in the Home Counties.
Little more than a quarter (27 per cent) believe Mr Sunk and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt are taking the right steps to address problems like high interest rates and soaring food price inflation.
Voters also also rate both Sir Ed and Sir Keir Starmer more highly than Rishi Sunak. Graph shows net approval ratings for each leader
Last month the Bank of England hiked interest rates to a new 15-year high – and hinted at more to come.
The base rate was pushed up 0.25 percentage points to 4.5 per cent, heaping pain on millions of mortgage-payers.
It is the 12th consecutive bump, and a peak since October 2008 – before the credit crunch sent the level tumbling.
The Monetary Policy Committee voted for the rise by a margin of seven to two, and highlighted that inflation – in particular food costs – has failed to fall as fast as anticipated.
The MPC suggested that Rishi Sunak is on the edge of missing his target of halving the pace of price rises by the end of the year, with CPI predicted to be 5.1 per cent by the last quarter. It is slated to remain above the 2 per cent target for more than a year.
The OECD today dramatically upgraded Britain’s growth prospects – admitting the country will not go into recession this year after all
However, the OECD today dramatically upgraded Britain’s growth prospects – admitting the country will not go into recession this year after all.
The international body followed the IMF by radically shifting its predictions for the UK.
Instead of the 0.2 per cent downturn it had pencilled in for this year in March, the economy is now set for a 0.3 per cent expansion.
GDP is also anticipated to rise 1 per cent in 2024, rather than the 0.9 per cent in the previous forecasts.
Jeremy Hunt hailed the change, saying it recognised the government’s moves to bolster childcare and competitive business taxes.
However, the growth is still lacklustre by historic standards, and lags behind most of the G7. Only Germany, which fell into a recession over the start of the year and is set to stagnate in 2023, will perform worse.
The best performer among the G7 is set to be the US, with its economy forecast to grow by 1.6 per cent this year before easing to 1 per cent in 2024. That is partly due to Joe Biden’s extraordinary fiscal stimulus for cleaner industries.
‘The global economy is turning a corner but faces a long road ahead to attain strong and sustainable growth,’ OECD chief economist Clare Lombardelli said.
The Chancellor said: ‘Today’s report boosts our growth forecast, praises our action to help parents back to work with a major expansion of free childcare, and recognises our cuts to business taxes which aim to drive investment.
‘But while inflation is still too high, we must stick relentlessly to our plan to halve it this year. That is the only long term way to grow the economy and ease the cost of living pressures on families.’
The IMF executed a similar embarrassing overhaul to its forecasts last month.
It had predicted in January that the UK would be the worst-performing major economy in 2023 – with a 0.6 per cent fall in GDP, even worse than Russia.
That figure was then changed to a 0.3 per cent dip in April, before it finally conceded that ‘resilient demand’ and ‘declining energy prices’ meant that the UK should ‘avoid a recession and maintain positive growth in 2023’. It believes the economy will expand by a ‘subdued’ 0.4 per cent.
Source: Read Full Article