9 December 2025

Labour is now the least trusted party in Britain

Almost two thirds of voters say that tax rises in the November Budget were not justified

Photo by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street

Labour is now the least trusted political party in Britain, according to new polling exclusive to the New Statesman. Of those polled, 38 per cent said they distrusted the Labour party “a lot” while 11 per cent said they distrusted it “a little” (49 per cent of respondents in total). Some 34 per cent said they trusted Labour either a lot or a little.

The polling by Merlin Strategy, of a nationally representative cohort of 2,000 individuals, was carried out following the Budget in late November. It found generally low levels of political trust across UK parties. While Labour received the lowest net figure (total trust minus total distrust), other parties were not far ahead.

The Chancellor’s Budget measures appear to have played some role in the worrying results for Labour. Just 18 months ago the party came to power riding a wave of public distrust towards the Conservative party following Partygate, the calamitous Liz Truss premiership and Rishi Sunak’s failure to meet his promises either to significantly cut NHS waiting lists or to “stop the boats”.

In answer to follow-up questions about current affairs, 69 per cent of respondents said Labour had “broken their manifesto promises on tax”. Of 2024 Labour voters, half agreed with that assessment. Almost two thirds of voters say that tax rises in the November Budget were not justified. Half of people surveyed say that the Budget has made working people worse off. Perhaps surprisingly, supporters of the Green party – which is outflanking Labour from the left – were more likely to describe Rachel Reeves’ tax rises as unjustified than the median voter.

Some 70 per cent think the Government will raise taxes again at the next Budget while 44 percent agreed with the statement: “The UK economy will get worse, the next budget will have further tax rises and nothing will get better”. The Conservative party’s net trust rating is also negative though its numbers are marginally higher than Labour’s, with 36 saying they trust the Tories to 41 saying they don’t. Reform is equally split 39 per cent to 39 per cent, as are the Liberal Democrats on 33 to 33.

The second least trusted party in the poll is the Greens, though this is partly because of a high number of “don’t know” responses given when voters were asked about the Zack Polanski’s insurgent party. Nearly a third said they either didn’t know what their view of the Greens was or that they neither trusted nor distrusted them at this time.

Scarlett Maguire, the pollster and director of Merlin Strategy, said of the results: “The public still feel like they are in a cost of living crisis. They have reacted badly to the Budget, with far more people saying it will leave them worse off than better. This may explain why Labour are now more distrusted than the Greens (and every other party) when it comes to the economy. If this Budget was an attempt to win back more progressive voters that Labour has lost, it also looks unlikely to succeed, with current Green voters are actually more likely than the general public to see the announced tax rises as unfair.”