More than half of voters think Chancellor George Osborne is “too posh” to relate to ordinary people, according to a ComRes poll for the Independent and Sunday Mirror released on Saturday evening.
The findings show 59% believe Osborne is out of touch with the public and 55% agree he is too posh to understand the financial pressures on ordinary people, with 23% disagreeing.
The findings also show just 17% of voters disagree that the Conservatives are unlikely to win the next General Election. Labour has a 10-point lead in the poll, which also shows 71% of respondents agreeing that there should be a referendum on Britain’s position in the UK.
ComRes said: “This is consistent with polling over the past decade on this issue, which shows demand for a referendum has declined since 2009, but hardly supports the prime minister’s claim that there is "no appetite" for a referendum. His own voters are the most supportive – 77% support a referendum compared with 69% of Labour voters and 63% of Lib Dems.”
The findings come after a poll by Ipsos Mori for the Evening Standard last week showed shadow chancellor Ed Balls was thought to be the better man to run the economy than Osborne.
On Friday the government's decision to offer a £100bn boost to banks while failing to bailout Britain's biggest independent oil refinery was decried as "the clearest evidence possible" of double standards by the coalition.