Politics

Majority of Sky News YouGov voters panel still undecided on who to vote for just days before general election

Published

5 months ago

June 30, 2024

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A majority of people on the Sky News YouGov voters panel say they are still undecided who to vote for.

As the politicians make the last push for support, many on our panel say they are uninspired by all the main parties.

Of the 51 people who responded, 32 are still struggling with their choice.

One voter said: “I seem to change my mind almost from day to day.”

Another echoed this: “So many people are in the same boat. They don’t know who to vote for, or who will do a good job.”

The undecided voters could make a big difference come 4 July.

Among our panel, almost two-thirds of those who are undecided, live in constituencies which could flip at the election.

Check which party could win in your constituency under YouGov projection

Our panel, managed by pollster YouGov, represent different areas and a range of political views.

They all voted in 2019 and intend to vote this time too.

We asked our wavering voters why they can’t decide.

“I think there is a large disillusionment with politics in this country now,” one person told us.

Another said: “I see it more as a choice to pick who to not vote for rather than who to vote for.”

While some believe the result is a foregone conclusion: “I almost feel like, is there a point in me actually coming out to vote? Because Labour are going to win. The gap is just so big.”

We dug deeper and asked our voters panel what would help sway their votes.

“Politicians now are just so out of touch with common people,” one person said.

“They’re not understanding how the cost of living affects people who are on minimum wage and how not being able to access an NHS doctor or an NHS dentist affects them.”

Several others mentioned the shortage of NHS dentists, and a lack of policy detail came up frequently.

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“I want to know how they’re going to look after people that rent properties… The wage increases, minimum wage, my wife’s on a minimum wage so we need to be better off financially,” one voter told us.

And there are also voters so disillusioned they cannot find any political home.

“Most of the people in my area… are of the opinion that they ain’t gonna bother voting because nobody cares about them anyway.”

And another told us “at the moment I’m going to be a last-minute decider”, undecided until the very end.

NY Supreme Court allows Greenidge to keep mining, but challenges remain

Published

2 hours ago

November 15, 2024

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NY Supreme Court allows Greenidge to keep mining, but challenges remain

The state Department of Environmental Conservation botched the permitting process, but it still gets a do-over.

UK economy grows by 0.1% between July and September – slower than expected

Published

2 hours ago

November 15, 2024

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UK economy grows by 0.1% between July and September - slower than expected

The UK economy grew by 0.1% between July and September, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

However, despite the small positive GDP growth recorded in the third quarter, the economy shrank by 0.1% in September, dragging down overall growth for the three month period.

The growth was also slower than what had been expected by experts and a drop from the 0.5% growth between April and June, the ONS said.

Economists polled by Reuters and the Bank of England had forecast an expansion of 0.2%, slowing from the rapid growth seen over the first half of 2024 when the economy was rebounding from last year’s shallow recession.

And the metric that Labour has said it is most focused on – the GDP per capita, or the economic output divided by the number of people in the country – also fell by 0.1%.

Reacting to the figures, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “Am I satisfied with the numbers published today? Of course not. I want growth to be stronger, to come sooner, and also to be felt by families right across the country.”

“It’s why in my Mansion House speech last night, I announced some of the biggest reforms of our pension system in a generation to unlock long term patient capital, up to £80bn to help invest in small businesses and scale up businesses and in the infrastructure needs,” Ms Reeves later told Sky News in an interview.

“We’re four months into this government. There’s a lot more to do to turn around the growth performance of the last decade or so.”

New economy data tests chancellor’s growth plan

The sluggish services sector – which makes up the bulk of the British economy – was a particular drag on growth over the past three months. It expanded by 0.1%, cancelling out the 0.8% growth in the construction sector.

The UK’s GDP for the most recent quarter is lower than the 0.7% growth in the US and 0.4% in the Eurozone.

The figures have pushed the UK towards the bottom of the G7 growth table for the third quarter of the year.

It was expected to meet the same 0.2% growth figures reported in Germany and Japan – but fell below that after a slow September.

The pound remained stable following the news, hovering around $1.267. The FTSE 100, meanwhile, opened the day down by 0.4%.

The Bank of England last week predicted that Ms Reeves’s first budget as chancellor will increase inflation by up to half a percentage point over the next two years, contributing to a slower decline in interest rates than previously thought.

Announcing a widely anticipated 0.25 percentage point cut in the base rate to 4.75%, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) forecast that inflation will return “sustainably” to its target of 2% in the first half of 2027, a year later than at its last meeting.

The Bank’s quarterly report found Ms Reeves’s £70bn package of tax and borrowing measures will place upward pressure on prices, as well as delivering a three-quarter point increase to GDP next year.