It still remains very negative, however
Key takeaways
- The proportion of Britons who say the economy is in a bad state has fallen fractionally, from 79% ahead of last year's Budget in November to 74% now
- The number who say Labour inherited a poor economy, but are gradually making things better, has increased from 9% to 20%
- The number who think Labour were dealt a poor hand but have made things even worse has fallen from 36% to 24%
- Ahead of the 2025 Budget, 64% of people listed “the impact of decisions made by the current Labour government” as a main reason why the economy is in a bad state. Today this figure is 44%
- People who say the economy is in a bad state are now most likely to say the US-Iran conflict is a main reason why, at 56%
- Since last year there has been a 10 point increase in the number of people who think the government is doing well on the economy in general, to 24%. At the same time, the number who think they are handling it badly has fallen from 77% to 62%
With Westminster waiting for the coming Budget to get the first detailed look at how new prime minister Andy Burnham intends to manage the public finances, a new YouGov survey shows the British public are still very negative about the economy – although the change in Number 10 has somewhat improved public perceptions of the government’s economic competence.
Three quarters of Britons say the economy is in a bad state
The proportion of Britons who say that the economy is in a bad state has fallen fractionally, from 79% in November last year to 74% now. Nevertheless, only 4% think the economy is in a good state (no change from last year), while the 17% who say it is in a ‘neither good nor bad’ state is also broadly the same (it was 15% last year).
This negativity is shared across the political spectrum, with 66-93% of voters for the five largest parties in 2024 saying the economy is in a bad state, although Reform voters (62%) and Tories (40%) are much more likely to say it is in a “very bad” state than Labour, Lib Dem and Green voters (16-20%).
Three quarters of Britons also say Labour inherited a bad economy
While there is still strong negativity towards the state of the economy, perceptions of Labour’s role are becoming more positive.
Asked a combined question on the state of the economy when Labour took over and how things have changed since then, the number who say Labour inherited a poor economy, but are gradually making things better, has increased from 9% to 20%.
At the same time, the number who think Labour were dealt a poor hand but have made things even worse has fallen from 36% to 24%.
Overall, 73% of Britons gave an answer that indicated they believe Labour inherited a bad economy, a figure unchanged from last year.
There has also been a marked decrease in the number of people who say the economy is in a bad state who ascribe blame for that to Labour. While ahead of the 2025 Budget fully 64% of people listed “the impact of decisions made by the current Labour government” as a main reason why – easily the most common answer – this figure has since fallen to 44%. Among 2024 Labour voters who say the economy is in a bad state, this figure has fallen from 47% to 22% over the past year – from being the third most common answer after blaming the Tories and Brexit to the least common.
Indeed, the number of Britons blaming Labour is now roughly similar to the number who said the same of the Conservatives, at 40% (down 6pts).
There seems to be a greater sense that the UK economy is being blown off course by the winds of international goings on. People who say the economy is in a bad state are now most likely to say the US-Iran conflict is a main reason why, at 56%. Alongside this is a major increase in the number blaming the conflict in Ukraine (up from 23% to 42%), the impact of international markets (up from 16% to 22%) and the impact of US tariffs (up from 15% to 21%).
By contrast, the impact of Brexit (44%) receives effectively the same number as last year, with the same true for low productivity in British companies (26%).
Perceptions of Labour’s handling of the economy have improved, although they are still negative
We also asked Britons how well they think Labour are doing at managing the economy across a range of factors.
When it comes to ‘the economy in general’, there has been a 10 point increase in the number of people who think the government is doing well, to 24%. At the same time, the number who think they are handling it badly has fallen from 77% to 62%.
There have also been notable increases in the numbers of people who think the government are doing a good job of ‘helping people get onto the housing ladder’ (up 10pts to 17%), reducing poverty (up 9pts to 18%), and ‘providing the conditions for business to grow’ (up 7pts to 17%).
However, there has not been a similar growth in the number of people thinking the government are keeping inflation under control (18% last year, now 20%), or keeping government borrowing under control (14% last year, now 16%). That said, in both cases the number thinking the government are doing badly on these fronts has fallen 5-6pts.
For the time being, the majority of Britons think the government is doing badly across all measures we asked about (59-65%).
Among 2024 Labour voters, the improvements are more notable still. For instance, on the ‘economy in general’ question, the number thinking Labour are doing well has risen from 27% to 46%, while the number saying they are doing badly has fallen from 61% to 41%.
While there have been major improvements across the other economic measures – particularly on reducing poverty and helping people get onto the housing ladder – Labour voters do still tend to think the government have been doing badly across each of them.
Methodology
- Sample size: An online survey of 2,079 adults aged 18+ living in Great Britain
- Fieldwork: 8-9 October 2026
- Commissioned by: YouGov
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