The British public has given the thumbs down to the Budget in a blow to Rachel Reeves.
The Chancellor’s package is widely regarded as unfair and unaffordable, according to a poll.
The YouGov research found abolishing the two-child benefit cap, freezing tax thresholds and curbing how much can be put in cash ISAs were particularly unpopular.
Just 11 per cent believe Ms Reeves is doing a good job in the aftermath of the long-awaited fiscal statement – with 59 per cent saying she is performing badly.
The bleak figures undermine Labour hopes that Ms Reeves and Keir Starmer might be able to kick-start a revival after a torrid first 16 months in power.
The Chancellor’s package was widely regarded as unfair and unaffordable, according to a poll
The bleak figures undermine Labour hopes that Ms Reeves (pictured) and Keir Starmer might be able to kick-start a revival after a torrid first 16 months in power
Just 11 per cent believe Ms Reeves is doing a good job in the aftermath of the long-awaited fiscal statement – with 59 per cent saying she is performing badly
Critics have claimed the Budget was targeted at ‘save their skins’ by placating mutinous MPs, instead of appealing to the public.
Ms Reeves and Sir Keir have both denied breaking the Labour manifesto’s tax promises and insisted they inflicted the ‘minimum’ pain on ‘working people’.
The Treasury’s OBR watchdog concluded that none of the measures would make a significant difference to economic growth, which has been stalling despite apparently being Sir Keir’s top priority.
The YouGov polling, carried out on Wednesday and Thursday, found 21 per cent thought the Budget was fair overall, while 48 per cent said it was unfair.
It was seen as affordable by 22 per cent, and unaffordable by 47 per cent.
Just 9 per cent viewed it as likely to make the country better off, and 50 per cent said it would make their own family worse off.
Two-thirds expected the UK’s economic situation to get worse over the next year, and 56 per cent said the same about their personal circumstances.
Scrapping the two-child benefits cap was seen negatively by a margin of 56 per cent to 31 per cent.
The same proportion opposed extending the ‘stealth raid’ freeze on tax thresholds, with only 26 per cent in favour.
Half were against slashing ‘salary sacrifice’ reliefs for private sector workers paying into pensions – a measure supported by just 21 per cent.
Cutting the annual limit for cash ISAs from £20,000 to £12,000 was found to be the least popular, with 16 per cent in favour and 62 per cent against.
In slightly better signs for Ms Reeves, there was strong support for gambling taxes, freezing most rail fares, and the ‘mansion tax’ on homes worth more than £2million.
The huge £30billion raid unveiled on Wednesday included an eye-watering £12.7billion from extending the tax threshold freeze for another three years.
Around a quarter of the working population will be paying higher or top rate tax by then, up from just 15 per cent when it was imposed in 2021.
The higher rate threshold would have been £70,370 by 2030 instead of £50,270 if it had risen in line with inflation.
The tax burden is due to reach a new peak as a proportion of GDP in records that go back more than 300 years.
The Office for Budget Responsibility said economic growth under Labour would be even lower than forecast last year – and warned that none of the 88 measures unveiled by Ms Reeves would have a ‘material impact’ on boosting GDP.
The decision to spend £3billion a year axing the two-child cap was cheered wildly by Labour MPs.
But it will involve the taxpayer funding handouts worth thousands of pounds a year each to Britain’s biggest jobless families.
Salary sacrifice for pensions schemes will be limited to £2,000 a year in a £4.7 billion raid.