Budget 2024: Reeves outpolls Hunt as Tories face worst poll on record

A new poll by Ipsos has found the public favours Rachel Reeves as Chancellor over Jeremy Hunt, while Labour are 27 points ahead of the Conservatives in Westminster voting intentions.

Some 47% of those polled said they intended to vote Labour at the next election, compared to 20% who said they would be voting Conservative. This is the worst ever result for the Conservatives in an Ipsos poll, dating back to 1978.

Only 22% are satisfied with Jeremy Hunt’s work as Chancellor and 56% dissatisfied, compared with 39% who think Reeves would make the most capable Chancellor.

In a blow for the Prime Minister, 73% of people said they were dissatisfied with his performance in No. 10.

Keir Starmer is more popular but has also experienced a slight drop-off in personal ratings in the polls. 55% are dissatisfied with his performance as leader of the opposition.

Some 55% thought he was indecisive and 50% said that they did not know what he stood for.

Latest @IpsosUK for @standardnews has the Conservatives falling to 20%, the lowest share Ipsos has ever recorded for them since our regular political monitor series started in the late 1970s. The rest of the data helps explain why…. https://t.co/tfa4McgN6h 1/5 pic.twitter.com/iXY0GJqL3L

— Gideon Skinner (@GideonSkinner) March 4, 2024

Commenting on the polling, Gideon Skinner, Head of Political Research at Ipsos, said the “historical comparisons continue to look ominous for Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives.

“The Ipsos Political Monitor series started in the late 1970s and has never recorded a Conservative vote share this low.”

Commentator and former Labour advisor Ayesha Hazarika, who has been nominated for a life peerage by Labour, described the figures as “stark”, saying: “And yet many sections of the media still want to push this absurd “Sunak on brink of comeback” theory. Mad. This country is begging for political change.”

Labour candidate and Opinium pollster Chris Curtis described the Ipsos poll as probably “the most significant poll so far”.