A new YouGov poll showing that 83 per cent of the public support the coalition’s decision to abolish child benefit for higher rate taxpayers will calm some jangled nerves in the Tory Party. The survey at least confirms, as progressives have long argued, that the majority of voters support tax increases on higher-earners.
But for those, like me, who believe that universal child benefit is an essential pillar of the welfare state, it’s still a dispiriting poll. Yvette Cooper, who increasingly looks like a good bet for shadow chancellor, has done a good job of linking the move to the coalition’s other anti-family measures (the abolition of baby bonds, the three-year freeze in child benefit, the abolition of the health in maternity grant, the withdrawal of child tax credits from higher-earners) but Labour must mount a much clearer, principled defence of a universal welfare state.
Yet dig below the headline findings and there is some evidence of public discontent. Asked if a couple on £30,000 each should receive child benefit when one earner on £44,000 doesn’t, 46 per cent say no and 41 per cent say the anomaly is “not ideal but acceptable”.
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Latest poll (YouGov/Sun) Conservatives 13 seats short of a majority
Elsewhere, there’s more good news for the Tories, who seem to have enjoyed a conference poll bounce. The YouGov daily tracker puts them up two points to 43 per cent, with Labour unchanged on 39 per cent and the Lib Dems down one to 11 per cent. But, with the spending review now just two weeks away, this may be one of the last polls the Tories can take encouragement from.
New Statesman Poll of Polls
Hung parliament, Labour 15 seats short.