Almost three quarters (72%) of UK adults say the government’s Stop the Boats pledge has gone badly, according to new polling from Savanta.
Ahead of a crucial vote on the third reading of the Rwanda Bill on Wednesday evening – a key component of the government’s small boats strategy – just 18% of the public think that the government’s pledge to Stop the Boats has gone well so far.
Negative sentiment is even stronger among key parts of the government’s core voter base, with three quarters of both 2019 Conservative voters (73%) and 2016 Leave voters (76%) feeling that the Stop the Boats pledge has gone badly. Their sentiment is shared by eight in ten (79%) 2019 Labour voters.
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To add insult to injury for the Conservatives, a third (34%) of the public say that Labour would be best placed to Stop the Boats, compared to just a quarter (26%) who feel Sunak’s party would handle the issue the best.
However, a significant minority of the public (41%) say that they don’t know which party would be best placed to deal with the issue.
Looking at Sunak’s other key pledges, just a third (32%) say that the pledge to halve inflation has gone well (32%), with fieldwork conducted well in advance of today’s announcement of a small rise in inflation. Six in ten (60%) say that the pledge has gone badly.
The pledge perceived to have performed the worst is cutting NHS waiting lists, where just 16% say it has gone well so far, and almost eight in ten (78%) saying it has gone badly. Almost half (49%) of the public say that Labour would be best placed to manage this, compared to just one in five (20%) who say the Conservatives.
Commenting on the findings, Chris Hopkins, Political Research Director at Savanta said, “These latest polling figures suggest that there’s a competence and credibility deficit hurting the Conservative Party, even before the latest Rwanda Bill vote and today’s inflation rise.
“Savanta’s research consistently shows very small proportions of the public, and even Conservative voters, believe the government’s key pledges have gone well so far, with the majority far more likely to say they’ve gone badly.
“The government will hope that passing tonight’s vote and a wider economic recovery will being to turn their fortunes around with the electorate.
“However, this polling suggests that even when the government can claim to have met a pledge, the public either don’t give them due credit, or the perception remains that the issue is still going badly.”
