Majority of Voters Think Rishi Sunak is Doing a "Bad Job" at Managing his Pledges

It's already been five months since Rishi Sunak announced his five pledges, although by now we've all heard them enough times to last a lifetime. Downing Street's relentless commitment to staying on message doesn't seem to have filled the electorate with confidence, however, as a majority of voters think Rishi is doing a "bad job" managing four of his five pledges. According to new polling by Ipsos MORI, the only pledge in which this number falls short of a majority is in "making sure the national debt is falling" - ranked as the least important of the promises - with 49% saying he's doing a bad job.

Although these figures don't bode well for the perception of the government's record of delivery amongst the public, it's unlikely these have a lot to do with government action of the past six months. Expectations were already low when Rishi announced his pledges, and the results are likely more reflective of the government's persistent and prolific popularity lows. It's not surprising that a majority of voters think the government is doing a "bad job" when 60% of voters think the country is headed in the wrong direction.

What's more, broadly speaking there hasn't been a major shift in perceptions since Ipsos last polled on Rishi's pledges. It's still the case that Starmer, although widely preferred over Sunak, still fails to inspire confidence in his ability to fulfil the same promises.

Elsewhere, the polling also corroborates prior findings from Opinium that voters, however much the Conservatives might want them to, don't fear a Lib-Lab "coalition of chaos". More people would consider both a Lib-Lab coalition and a Labour minority a "good outcome" than would for a Conservative majority government.