Will the Tories ever get over Kwarteng’s budget?
It was on September 23rd that Kwasi Kwarteng delivered his now infamous budget – the first big move by the Liz Truss government.
At the time the Tories were polling relatively well even though they were still behind. These were the three polls immediately before his statement:
Techne 7% LAB lead
YouGov 8% LAB lead
Opinium 5% LAB lead
The response of the market was terrifying and the following day the pound reached an all-time low against the American dollar. HIs reliance on hugely increased government borrowing to fund the largest tax cuts in half a century went down like a lead balloon.
Within five days YouGov had moved to a 33% LAB lead and several other pollsters moved into the 30s.
Since then team Truss has been replaced and there has been something of a recovery but apart from Opinium the LAB leads are still in the 20s.
Maybe this will be seen as like Black Wednesday after the ERM crisis which effectively led to 13 years of LAB government.