First YouGov post-budget poll

YouGov's first post-budget poll is in this morning's Sun. Topline voting intentions are CON 34%, LAB 39%, LDEM 10%, UKIP 10%. Five point Labour lead is broadly normal, though obviously you want to have several polls to get an idea of whether an event has had any impact, you cannot judge on one alone.

On budget and economic questions most of the specific measures in the budget are approved of, but then, they normally are. Income tax cuts and cuts in taxes on savings and so on all get the majority support you'd expect. The the rule change on annuities is supported by 66% of people, opposed by 8%, with 26% saying don't know. The bingo tax cut is actually the only one that gets more opposition than support - 31% support, 38% oppose.

As I wrote earlier in the week though, budgets are more than the sum of their parts. It's not really whether people approve of all the fiddly little bits, it's the overall perception of the budget that counts. On that front, it seems to be a thumbs up so far. 47% think the budget was fair, 26% unfair - YouGov ask that same question after every budget and this is the most positive since 2010. 26% think the budget will leave the country better off, 15% worse off (again, significantly better than last year - net positive this year is plus 11, last year it was minus 10). 21% think it will leave them personally better off, 18% worse off (net score of plus 3, compared to minus 20 last year).

Of course, this is just an instant response - YouGov's fieldwork runs from about 5pm to 3pm the next day, so many of the people responding wouldn't have seen how the budget was reported on the evening news or the next day's newspapers. Give it a couple of days before making any firm conclusions.