‘It was just … meh’: the voters who feel ‘tinkering’ budget let them down

Research group More in Common spoke to former ‘blue wall’ constituents unimpressed by ‘chaotic’ U-turns

“It’s all sort of stacked against you … The people that are working hard and earning a decent wage, trying to get childcare costs under control … you sort of question why you’re doing what you’re doing,” was how Hayley, an assistant headteacher in our focus group in Aldershot, described the economy, shortly after the budget was announced.

Hayley’s not alone: a record 57% of Britons now say they are unsure that the cost of living crisis will ever end. But what was so revealing about Wednesday’s focus group was that they were all in what we would normally see as relatively high-paid jobs, they owned their own homes – not the type of voter you’d normally think of as struggling. As Martin, a product manager in the automotive industry, put it: “On paper, we should be feeling really well off.”