79% of Tory voters trust Rishi Sunak the most out of the Cabinet

Norstat, Europe’s largest independent data collection company, has announced insights into people’s voting behaviour in the local election and what drove their decision making, from a nationally representative sample of 2,000 people in the United Kingdom.

Gathered on the 7 May 2021, this data is available for publication with attribution to Norstat.

UK Local Election

The local elections have demonstrated differences in action and opinion between generations.

• Older Brits (65+ years old) were a third more likely than 18-24s to have voted in yesterday’s local elections
• Older voters also were much more likely to vote for Conversative than younger voters (49% for 65+ vs. 18% 18-24s)
• 37% of young voters favoured Labour, vs. 17% for 65+

Despite widespread success at the polls, just 24% of Brits claim to have voted for Conservative in the local election with the top reasons for people voting Conversative listed below:

• The vaccine rollout has impressed them– 54%
• They don’t trust the opposition – 52%
• They will bring about a strong recovery from the pandemic – 44%

9% of Brits claim to have voted for Labour in the local election with the top reasons for people voting Labour listed below:

• They don’t trust the opposition – 41%
• They have policies that they can get behind – 38%
• Their plans will benefit people like them – 38%
• The British public are divided about Sir Keir Starmer’s ability to lead Labour to a position to challenge the Conservatives.
• Of the voting public, 41% say that he could challenge the Tories, and 52% say he can’t
• 75% of Conservative voters say Labour could not challenge the Tories under Starmer
• 68% of Labour voters say he could

Rishi Sunak is the most trusted member of the cabinet, while Michael Gove is the least. Trust towards cabinet members is divided as shown in the data below which combines all viewpoints regardless of party

•  Boris Johnson; Trust: 36% / Distrust: 45%
• Dominic Raab; Trust: 29% / Distrust: 41%
• Matt Hancock; Trust: 30% / Distrust: 45%
• Michael Gove; Trust: 19% / Distrust: 52%
•  Priti Patel; Trust: 23% / Distrust: 50%
• Rishi Sunak; Trust 42% / Distrust: 31%
• Conservative voters trust Rishi Sunak the most (79%) and Boris Johnson is second with 77%, while Michael Gove is trusted the least with a quarter of Tories distrusting him (25%)
• Labour voters jointly distrust Boris Johnson and Michael Gove the most with 73% each, yet alike to Tory voters, just over a quarter say they trust Rishi Sunak the most with 27%

Rob Agnew, Managing Director of Norstat UK said, “The country remains divided, but mistrust and belief in the leadership of both major parties has never been plainer to see. The Conservatives would appear to have the upper hand, but it may be due to the lack of faith in the opposition than for reasons of their own making.  Despite the Tories success at the polls, it is interesting to note that only a quarter of people admit to voting conservative.

It’s interesting to see that the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak has come out as the most-trusted person within the cabinet. With his strong response to challenges that businesses have faced, his straightforward approach has appealed more to the British public than that of the rest of the cabinet, with Michael Gove the least trusted.”