Chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing a severe public backlash and calls for her resignation following a Budget that voters overwhelmingly see as a breach of Labour's election promises, according to a major new poll.
Public Verdict: A Breach of Trust and a Call to Resign
The latest exclusive poll by City AM and Freshwater Strategy, conducted between 28 and 30 November 2025, delivers a damning assessment of the Chancellor's fiscal plans. It reveals that 57 per cent of British voters believe Rachel Reeves should resign in the wake of her Autumn Budget.
This hostile public verdict cuts across party lines, with 29 per cent of Labour voters agreeing she should step down. In contrast, only 32 per cent of all voters said she should not resign, a figure that includes nearly two-thirds of Labour's own supporters.
The Chancellor's personal approval ratings have also plummeted, dropping by four percentage points to a new low of -45.
Manifesto Promise Broken, Say Voters
At the heart of the public anger is the perception that the government has broken a key pledge. The Budget's decision to extend the freeze on income tax thresholds for a further three years, a move that will drag millions into higher tax bands, is seen by 64 per cent of respondents as a direct breach of Labour's manifesto commitment not to raise taxes on working people.
Only 12 per cent believed the policy did not break that promise. When asked if they agreed with the threshold freeze, a clear majority of 56 per cent disagreed, with just 21 per cent in support.
Furthermore, the government's attempts to blame the previous Conservative administration for the record-high tax burden have largely failed to convince the public. 44 per cent of those polled blame the current government's own decisions, while only a quarter agree with Reeves's argument that the Tories' economic legacy is at fault.
Welfare Spending Fails to Win Over Public
Despite coupling the tax rises with increased welfare spending, including the controversial decision to lift the two-child benefit cap, the Budget has not garnered public support. The poll indicates that 46 per cent of voters opposed scrapping the cap, a policy aimed at placating rebellious Labour MPs, while only a third agreed with it.
Overall, the package of measures—which also included stripping some green levies from energy bills and raising the National Living Wage—has left nearly half of Britons (48 per cent) believing they will be worse off. A mere 8 per cent think the Budget will leave them better off.
The Chancellor now faces intense pressure not just from the public and opposition leaders like Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, who have called for her to quit, but also from within her own party as questions mount over the government's economic strategy.
Method note: Freshwater Strategy interviewed n=1,558 eligible voters in the UK, aged 18+ online, between 28 – 30 November 2025. Margin of Error +/- 2.5%. Data are weighted to be representative of UK voters. Freshwater Strategy are members of the British Polling Council and abide by their rules.
