Voters ‘angry’ and impatient’, Rayner admits, amid fall in Labour support
Voters are angry and impatient for change, Angela Rayner has admitted, amid a fall in support for Labour in the polls and a rise for Reform UK.
The deputy Prime Minister said she understood the mood of the country after what she called several “significant challenges” faced by the government in its first months in office.
It came after a recent poll by FindOutNow which put the Tories in first place with 26 per cent of people saying they would vote for the party if a general election was called today.
Labour was beaten by Reform UK in the same survey, which put the government on 23 per cent and Nigel Farage’s party on 24 per cent, amid a wider drop in support for Labour emerging in Welsh and Scottish polls, in favour of nationalist parties SNP and Plaid Cymru.
On the rise in support for Reform UK, Rayner told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I know people are impatient for change and people are very angry that they see (what) they were promised.
“So, for example, when we left the European Union, people were promised more money into the NHS, your living standards will be better, and the opposite has happened.”
Labour support ‘off a cliff’
And she added: “I know people are impatient for change, but I also know that people will give us that opportunity and will judge us, and that’s why Keir set out the clear guidelines on what people should expect we will deliver.”
Pressed by Kuenssberg on Labour’s own drop in support, which the BBC host said had “fallen off a cliff”, Rayner stressed: “We’ve had significant challenges. The situation with the prisons, for example, we were one day away from total catastrophe.
“Nobody’s going to think it’s popular to release prisoners early, but we inherited that situation.”
Another poll carried out by Techne UK for The Independent, following Sir Keir Starmer’s speech on Thursday, showed a rise in support for Reform UK, with 21 per cent indicating support for the right-wing grouping, in a three-point increase on its previous poll.
Reform and Farage also pose a risk to the Tories, with shadow chief Treasury secretary Richard Fuller arguing the party needs to be clear on their plan for immigration and housing.
“On issues such as immigration, issues such as housing, yes, there is a need for us to start talking about what direction we’re going to take the country in,” he told the BBC.
Tory-Reform talks?
“We need to talk about issues people worry about, but I don’t think that’s the same as saying we have to now say what exactly we would do if we were in government in five years’ time.”
Fuller also told GB News that he thought the Conservatives “should be worried” about the rise of Farage, “because obviously at the last election, with people voting for Reform and not voting Conservative, we’ve ended up with a Labour government with a very large majority”.
While he acknowledged “the fundamental maths of Westminster remains the same, which is that we have a Labour government and we need to unite as opposition parties to try and defend the values we share”, he said the question of talks was one for Farage and Reform.
“It’s early days, so we’ll see in a couple of years’ time. Will Mr Farage’s rhetoric change? Will he stop saying that he wants to destroy the Conservative Party?” he asked.