Not For Patching? Public Opinion and the Commitment to ‘Build Back Better’

The first report from the Not for Patching? Project is written by Karl Pike, Farah Hussain, Philip Cowley and Patrick Diamond.

Not For Patching? Report [PDF 459KB]

Not For Patching? Polling Tables [PDF 848KB]

A team at QMUL commissioned Ipsos MORI to survey the views of the British public. The first report from this project – Not for Patching? ­­– includes the following findings:

• A majority of people (52%) said that they believed economic inequality had worsened during the pandemic
• The NHS was the most popular policy priority for rebuilding after the crisis (selected by 51%), followed by jobs and unemployment (35%), and mental health (28%).
• In relation to schools, support for pupils’ mental health and wellbeing was the most popular policy priority (38%).
• David Cameron and George Osborne’s economic strategy of public spending reductions to reduce the deficit after 2010 was judged to be the wrong decision by 47% of people.
• 76% of people supported more spending on health and social care compared with before the pandemic, followed by protecting the environment (56%), policing and criminal justice (54%), housing (52%), and welfare, benefits and pensions (51%).
• Four-in-ten people said they were prepared to pay more in taxes to fund public services.
• The vaccination programme leads the way in terms of public satisfaction with government delivery of major programmes during the pandemic (71% satisfied). The furlough scheme also has a positive result (60%), while in other areas there was much greater dissatisfaction – for example, with the ‘Test and Trace’ programme (55% dissatisfied).
• People appear to take a pragmatic view of the boundary between the public and the private sector in the provision of public services responding to the pandemic – with support for private sector involvement if it can boost the effectiveness of the state’s response.
• On whether the government has ‘followed the science’ during the crisis, the public are divided – 38% think the government have followed the science about the right amount compared with other factors, followed by 33% not enough and 20% too much.
• Keir Starmer’s approach of ‘constructive opposition’ has divided voters – the largest group (35%) think the leader of the opposition has done either a fairly or very bad job at this, followed by 29% saying neither good nor bad and 27% fairly or very good (27%).

Ipsos MORI surveyed 1,120 adults across Great Britain, posing questions across a range of policy areas. Fieldwork was carried out online from 19 March 2021 to 22 March 2021, and data weighted to match the profile of the population. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error, but they still give us an insight into the public’s priorities. Further analysis of this data, and further surveys, will continue to add to the Mile End Institute’s Not for Patching? project.

The public’s top three priorities – NHS, jobs and mental health – are all backed up by evidence and warnings from experts about the need for funding and new policy ideas. We also see a focus on mental health and wellbeing among the public’s priorities for young people – which topped the list when we asked specifically about schools.

— Dr Karl Pike, Deputy Director, Mile End Institute

Our report highlights a profound dilemma for Keir Starmer. Opinion is deeply divided on whether he has achieved the right balance of criticising the government too much, or not enough during the pandemic.

— Farah Hussain, PhD Researcher and Teaching Associate, QMUL

This new study confirms the positive ratings the public has given to the government’s vaccine programme and furlough schemes to deal with the pandemic, even if they are not so uniformly happy about all other aspects of its response. But with signs of some cautious optimism returning, thinking about the recovery period is going to be a priority. Dealing with inequalities and climate change, creating jobs, and improving public services are all important to Britons – as well as support for the damage the pandemic has done to people’s wellbeing – and many accept these will need government action and spending to achieve them.

— Gideon Skinner, Head of Political Research, Ipsos MORI