Voters favour Labour economic policies, FT poll finds

Voters support Labour party economic policies including higher taxes for top earners and nationalising key industries, a survey for the Financial Times has found.

The survey of 2,044 people found 55% favoured increased taxes for people earning more than £70,000 a year with 9% opposed. At the 2017 election Labour proposed higher taxes on salaries over £80,000 including a 5% increase for those earning more than £500,000.

Labour’s plans to increase corporation tax, strengthen worker rights, crack down on bosses’ pay and take utilities back under state control were also popular, the survey found.

The results will unnerve the Conservative government and its MPs, who are worried younger voters have little perception of what life was like before Margaret Thatcher’s free market revolution in the 80s.

Just one in five respondents opposed increasing corporation tax to 26% from 19%, the survey by Britain Thinks found. Some of the ideas fared less well in the polling company’s focus groups when participants found out they were Labour policies, suggesting the party is struggling to gain voter trust under Jeremy Corbyn.

The survey found voters thought the Conservatives were the best party for big business, the economy and getting a good Brexit deal. Labour was seen as the best party for families and smaller companies. Only two in five respondents could identify Philip Hammond as the current chancellor of the exchequer.