In our latest round of focus groups – in Portsmouth, Guildford, Clacton and Colchester – we heard separately from voters who had switched last year from the Conservatives to Labour, the Lib Dems or Reform, as well as more habitual Labour voters. Between them, our eight groups – one of men and one of women in each destination – came up with four positive things about the Labour government so far: the decisive response to last summer’s riots, the pay rise for teachers (among teachers), the higher minimum wage (though this worried small business people) and the fact that they had got rid of the Tories.
Yes you got a bad hand, but you asked for it. Deal with it or move on and let someone else have a go
The complaints were rather more numerous: the winter fuel allowance cuts, uncontrolled immigration, freed prisoners, two-tier policing, the Chagos Islands (“why wouldn’t you want to give them away and pay for the privilege? Good old Labour Party”), overseas aid (“I’m all for helping, but you can’t drive down the road without losing a wheel in a pothole. We’re going to send them a great deal of money while we’ve got pensioners freezing in this country”) and – especially – tax. Inheritance tax, council tax, National Insurance and rising taxes on pensions were all mentioned; not only that, “they’re considering removing the tax allowance on ISAs” and “If you’ve been using eBay you might get a visit from the HMRC.” Every time Rachel Reeves appeared on TV “it’s about what she’s taking off us next.”
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