Public firmly believe Sunak is failing on his five pledges, polling suggests
ishi Sunak has staked his premiership on voters judging him on his five priorities, but right now polling suggests their firm opinion is that each of them are going badly.
More than 80% of people in a survey by YouGov this week said he was failing on reducing inflation and cutting NHS waiting lists.
Their verdicts were nearly as bleak on the remaining three – to “stop the boats”, get national debt falling and to grow the economy and spread opportunity.
The Prime Minister urged voters at an event on Thursday to “hold me to account” in the coming months on the five priorities.
On inflation, he insisted he is “absolutely confident” that he can fulfil his pledge to halve the rate of inflation by the end of the year, despite a blow to the contrary.
The Bank of England again hiked interest rates adding to the mortgage misery on Thursday in a bid to tackle inflation which has stuck at 8.7%. Mr Sunak needs to get it to around 5% to live up to his promise.
The poll of 2,294 Britons on Tuesday and Wednesday saw 82% of people say he was doing badly on reducing inflation, with 51% saying he was doing “very” badly, rather than “quite”.
Just 7% said he was doing well, and all of those said he was doing quite well rather than very.
On cutting NHS waiting lists, 84% said he was doing badly compared with 5% who thought it was going well.
The poll suggested 76% of Britons believe he is doing badly on quickly removing asylum seekers who cross the Channel on small boats. Some 6% said he was doing well.
Provisional Home Office figures show around 10,601 people have been detected after making the crossing in 238 boats this year.
On reducing the national debt, 71% said he was doing badly. On creating better paid jobs across the country that figure stood at 67% and on encouraging economic growth 69%.
Figures on Wednesday showed national debt exceeded the size of the economy for the first time in more than 60 years.
In each of the six questions in the YouGov poll, the answers were more negative for Mr Sunak than they were a month ago.
The Prime Minister has a limited time to turn around public perception, with a general election required before the end of January 2025.
Speaking during a visit to Kent on Friday, Mr Sunak said: “I want to restore people’s trust in politics by not just being honest about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it, but then actually delivering on the things that I say.
“So I’m not going to promise the earth, I’m not going to promise I can fix every single problem.
“But, as I said, here are my five priorities. I’ve set them out really clearly.
“And you guys should be able to hold me to account in six months, nine months, a year, year-and-a-half.”