Two-thirds of Labour members say government has made too many policy U-turns, poll reveals

Two-thirds of Labour members think the government has made too many climbdowns and U-turns since taking office, an exclusive LabourList poll has revealed.

The government has been criticised for having changed course on many of their key policy decisions, taking significant political damage in the process. At least ten occurrences of government U-turns have been acknowledged.

The poll, conducted by Survation, found that 65 percent of party members thought the government has reversed course on too many policies since taking office, compared with 30 percent who said they had not.

Of those who backed Keir Starmer in the 2020 leadership election, 67 percent felt the government has made too many U-turns, compared to 57 percent of those that voted for Rebecca Long Bailey and 61 percent for Lisa Nandy.

More than half (53 percent) of members that feel the Prime Minister is currently doing a good job, and that the Labour Party is moving in the right direction, also believe that there has been too many reversals of policy decisions since entering government.

Members that took part in the poll were also asked about specific U-turns that the government had made, to establish which policy changes specifically had been supported or opposed among the Labour membership.

LabourList found that 70 percent of Labour members support the decision to reverse the initial stance on business rates for pubs and live music venues which was announced in January. In comparison, 13 percent of members who believe the government should have stuck to their original position on the matter.

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Another government change in policy from an initial announcement that saw the leadership criticised was the – turn on the winter fuel allowance, expanding the eligibility to pensioners with an income of £35,000 or less in June 2025 as opposed to the original July 2024 announcement that was intended to save the government £3 billion.

A majority of Labour members also support the government in making this decision the polling demonstrates, with 65 percent of members supportive of the climbdown.

Similarly, 61 percent of members support the government decision change on welfare reforms, which took place in July 2025.

The most popular change in government stance is on the two child benefit cap though, with more than four-fifths (82 percent) of members in support of the government U-turn after initially holding off on the removal of the cap that pushed hundreds of thousands of children into poverty.

However, not all government changes in policy are supported by members when viewed in isolation. For example, 49 percent of members oppose the government decision to change its stance on inheritance tax for farmers, in contrast with 38 percent of members that support this decision.

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The poll is the latest in a series of regular polls LabourList is publishing in partnership with leading pollsters Survation, a member of the British Polling Council and a Market Research Society Partner.

Survation surveyed 1,264 readers of LabourList, the leading dedicated newsletter and news and comment website for Labour supporters, who also said they were Labour Party members between January 29 and February 3.

Data was weighted to the profile of party members by age group, sex, region and 2025 deputy leadership vote. Targets for weighting were drawn from the British Election Study and the results of the leadership and deputy leadership election.

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