A new survey suggests that Tory hopes of maintaining power at the next election rest on Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt’s hopes of halving inflation and cutting mortgage costs before voters go to the polls.
According to figures assembled for Mail Online, the state of the stumbling economy is far and away the most important issue for voters ahead of an election expected next year.
More than a third (35 per cent) surveyed by Redfield & Wilton Strategies said it was the issue that would most determine how they would cast their vote in the next election.
Tellingly, it was the most important issue across all age groups, with the highest figures among pensioners, a group containing a large number of Tory voters.
It comes as mortgage lenders pull financial products from the shelves ahead of an unexpected further boost in interest rates from the Bank of England, designed to tackle inflation rates remaining stubbornly high.
In April CPI fell to 8.9 per cent from 10.1 per cent the month before, dropping out of double figures for the first time in eight months, but again the drop wasn’t as big as expected, with analysts having pencilled in a number closer to 8 per cent.
Rishi Sunak has pledged to half the rate of inflation by the end of the year as millions struggle with the cost of living crisis, high-interest rates and the soaring cost of food.
He and Mr Hunt are refusing to bow to backbench demands for tax cuts, in case it impacts inflation.
According to a survey carried out for the website by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, the next most serious issues on voters’ minds were education and healthcare.
While Rishi Sunak has made immigration another key focal point of Tory hopes for re-election, it’s just the fourth most pressing issue for voters, with just 9 per cent flagging it as a particular concern.
Britain’s largest building society is hiking some fixed mortgage rates for new borrowing from Friday, while another major lender has temporarily pulled some products.
Nationwide Building Society said it needed to increase fixed rates to ensure they remain sustainable, while HSBC UK said it had temporarily removed some products so it can stay within operational capacity.
Nationwide is increasing selected fixed-rate deals for new borrowing as well as reducing some rates on trackers. The revised rates for new mortgage business will be effective from Friday.
However, I doubt it will sway many people because there have been too many broken promises and incompetent ministers already, and we don’t want more of the same.
I’m not saying that you should change sides and vote Labour or Lib Dem – vote for who you want.
Some are even saying that we should vote for total parliamentary reform, but what difference would it make? They’re all endowed with money and status, that’s even before they get to become MPs, but after that, they become pompous arrogant twats!
Rishi Sunak can promise what he likes but isn’t that a bit like a sinking Titanic and the captain promising to halve the speed at which it’s sinking?
The only thing Rishi Sunak and the rest of the Tories are interested in is looking after the well-being of the Tory party and their donors, and they’ve been in power a long time now, and if they’ve not got it right by now, well then, they’re never going to get it right.
And the Conservatives won’t win a general election, the best they can hope for is a hung parliament. Halving inflation isn’t the same as halving prices which won’t be returning back anytime soon.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 