Labour failing to regain economic credibility

Labour may have a narrow leads in the polls, but they continue to lag behind the Tories on the public’s number one issue: the economy.

Today’s ComRes poll finds that just 18 per cent trust Eds Miliband and Balls “to make the right decisions about the economy”, compared to 30 per cent for Cameron and Osborne. Worse, the two Eds don’t even have the confidence of the majority of Labour voters: only 48 per cent trust them on the economy.

YouGov also find Labour behind when it comes to the economy. 30 per cent think the Conservatives would handle it best, while just 26 per cent think Labour would. And that’s despite the fact that 58 per cent of the public think the Coalition is managing the economy badly.

The two Eds’ latest attempt to reverse this failure is their “plan for jobs and growth”. As Pete said on Thursday, the policies they have announced are themselves very popular – particularly reversing the VAT increase.