Key facts
- YouGov polling for The Times found 45% of Britons called the 2026 Budget fair and 20% called it unfair.
- Belief the government manages the economy well rose to 31% from 15% since last November, while 55% said it was doing badly.
- Removing gas standing charges, delaying a planned 5p fuel duty rise and extending the electricity VAT cut until 2027 drew 83% to 84% support.
- Reform voters were the clearest exception, with 41% calling the Budget not fair against 24% who called it fair.
- Kemi Badenoch said the government had not been bold enough in her response to the announcements.
About half of Britons, 49%, expected John Healey's 2026 Budget to make no difference to the country, and 56% expected no real difference to their own family's finances, according to YouGov polling for The Times published after the Budget.
The survey found 45% of Britons regarded the Budget as fair against 20% who saw it as unfair, the most positively received budget since March 2021. YouGov said only George Osborne's first Budget in 2010 and Rishi Sunak's Covid budgets of 2020 and March 2021 were judged fair by a greater proportion of Britons, at 50% to 55%.
Belief that the government is managing the economy well rose to 31% from 15% since last November, though 55% still said it was doing badly. On affordability, 31% of Britons said the Budget's changes were affordable for the country and 32% said they were not.
Most headline measures drew support: 83% to 84% of Britons described removing gas standing charges, delaying a planned 5p increase in fuel duty and extending the VAT cut on electricity until 2027 as the right thing to do. Increasing tax on income from property or savings interest was an exception.
Healey said he wanted to give hard-pressed families "breathing space" and "hope for the future" amid international economic turmoil, while Kemi Badenoch characterised the approach as the government not being "bold enough" in her response. The wider economic outlook remained poor, with 74% of Britons saying the economy is in a bad state.