By Jessica Frank-Keyes
Just eight per cent of voters believe the government can be given credit for the recent fall in inflation, polling by YouGov has revealed.
Inflation dropped to 6.8 per cent last month, which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed showed his plan was working.
Sunak made five key pledges to the public in January, including vowing that he would halve inflation – meaning it would need to drop to 5.3 per cent – by the end of the year.
But pollsters at YouGov found that only a fraction, just eight per cent, of the public believe government actions and policies were responsible for this drop.
Only 17 per cent believed the falling rate of price increases could be attributed to actions by the Bank of England (BoE), which has now hiked interest rates to 5.25 per cent.
Researchers found that most people, 38 per cent, believed inflation had fallen due to outside factors, such as the drop in global oil and gas prices, while 31 per cent said they did not know what was causing it.
In red wall areas of England, just five per cent of voters said they thought Sunak’s policies had brought inflation down, and just 12 per cent of 2019 Tory voters agreed with them.
A No10 source told The Times: “Inflation is the biggest issue facing the country and without tackling it, we can’t unlock any of the other issues facing us as a country.
“It’s why the prime minister outlined halving inflation as his number one priority in January and put a plan in place to deliver that: being responsible with public spending and borrowing, tackling the drivers of inflation and helping people with the cost of living support.
“And recent figures show the prime minister’s plan is working.”
