Full tabs for the YouGov/Sunday Times poll are now up here.
On the regular leader ratings all three are up: David Cameron stands at minus 1 (up from minus 3 a week ago), Nick Clegg at minus 38 (up from minus 50) and Ed Miliband at minus 48 (up from minus 53).
74% of people now expect Britain to go back into recession in the next 12 months. This isn’t actually much changed from before the recent negative growth figures (it was 72% when last asked in November), but that’s probably to be expected that people already expected a second recession anyway (not to mention that most people don’t pay much attention to economic figures!)
On the cuts, 42% think the government should reduce the scale of the cuts, 45% think they are right as they are (33%) or should be bigger (12%). On taxes 47% would like to see taxes cut more to encourage growth, 11% think taxes should be increased to reduce the deficit, 30% think the present balance is about right.
Exploring taxes a bit more we see the usual pattern – people support tax cuts, but support tax hikes for people significantly richer than they are. Hence 83% support increasing the personal allowance to £10,000, but 65% support a “mansion tax” on houses worth £2 million or more. Interesting support for a mansion tax does drop somewhat if the threshhold comes down to £1 million, bringing support down to 50% and to under half in London and the South-East. On the 50p tax rate, there is high support for keeping the tax rate (by 68% to 19%, up from last year), but much less support for expanding it. People are pretty evenly split on bringing down the threshhold to £100,000, with 39% in support and 42% opposed.
Moving onto the benefits cap, 72% of people support the principle of a benefits cap and, of those who support it, 33% support the proposed £26,000 cap, 52% support a lower cap, 9% a higher cap. 24% support the House of Lords amendment excluding child benefit from the cap, with 58% opposed.
Finally there were a series of questions on honesty: 65% of people think that people have become less honest in the last decade. Asked about various professions, people overwhelmingly think it is likely they would lie – over 90% think it is likely that politicians, celebrities and business leaders would lie. 77% think lawyers are likely to lie. Only in the case of doctors do a majority (68%) think it is unlikely they would lie. Asked if it is acceptable for figures in public office to lie, 70% think it is never acceptable on matters of public interest, but they are more understanding when it comes to their personal lives, where 57% think it is sometimes acceptable for them to lie.
Filed under:
Economy,
Taxation
