The prime minister and chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, spent the days leading up to Thursday arguing that those with the broadest shoulders would pay their fair share. Jeremy Hunt repeated the mantra “Britain is a compassionate country” and pledged to protect the most vulnerable in society amid the worst fall in living standards on record. But members of a focus group from the Greater Manchester city of 40,000, organized by More in Common for the Guardian, believe Sunak and Hunt have left “the workers to foot this bill”. They added that the government had even avoided the middle class. “I voted Tory at the last election, but would I do it again? I’m not sure,” said Tracy, a 52-year-old group sales manager. “I’ve been working since I was 14, I’ve been working for over 30 years and now I should be reaping those rewards as I’ve never missed a day off from work. But it’s like someone saying I can’t because someone else is taking it away out of greed. God bless these single mothers,” he added, before pointing out how much profit oil company BP has made this year. Sunak’s decisions were perceived to only look after himself and other rich people and not to improve the group’s conditions, they said. This, they added, was the main takeaway from the budget, rather than being Hunt’s first test as chancellor or a consequence of Liz Truss’s mini-budget. Asked to describe the budget in a few words, they said it was “leadership stress”, “mental”, “unrealistic”, “bankrupt” and “crap”. The prime minister “has no idea what it’s like to live from month to month, or what it’s like to live on bread and decide whether you’re going to clothe your children or give them food that month,” Judd said. Sunak had “married into a billionaire’s family”, the 32-year-old said, and “would only help his kind of people”. He added: “Liz Truss is just a name to blame. This has been a long time coming. We were always going to face these tax increases.” Colleen, 30, who works in finance, agreed, describing Truss as a “scapegoat”. Primary school headteacher Craig, 42, who did not find the bleak budget “a big surprise” given how much money had been spent over the past three to four years, said Truss had “inherited” many problems from Boris when they were forced outside. “It was always a poisoned chalice,” he added. But the team had no such sympathy for Sunak or Hunt. They admitted they were unaware of the non-domiciled loophole used by around 68,300 people in the UK, but were furious when they realized the government had not made them pay their fair share of tax. “How are you supposed to get away with it?” Jade asked, leading her and others to wonder if Sunak was ‘on their side’. All members responded with a resounding “no.” “Absolutely not,” Tracy added, claiming he is “out of touch with reality” or the working class because of his millionaire family. “I don’t think he is the leader of this country. I don’t think he really understands. He’s obviously very intelligent, but I don’t think he’s out of touch with reality.” Focus group members also wondered if there were politicians from any party who understood what it can be like to live month to month. “Labour are telling us what we want to hear because they want to be in,” Jade said. Craig added: “If you look at someone going into position [of prime minister or leading a party] Now, most of them have not lived hand to mouth and are not part of the working class.” Craig described how difficult it was to see his real pay cut and feel like he couldn’t get support from the government. When asked if it was right for the government to increase benefits in line with inflation, he was the only member able to respond, describing it as a “sore issue”. “In real terms, [my partner and I are] worse than we were two and a half years ago. We are above the level of benefits, but we are not at 50 or 60 euros a year,” he said. Louise, a 33-year-old single mother of five who works at a specialist children’s school, said she had been forced to leave the heating on and could bear hearing her children begging for warmth. “One of my children is autistic and if he catches a cold he has a meltdown. It’s gotten to the point where my kids will say, ‘Mom, I put my hoodie on, I’m wearing a blanket and I’m still cold,’” she added. Tracy said: “The government has lost sight of what made this country great at one point. Now we’re at a point where people are asking, ‘What do you need to do to make a better life for yourself?’ Colleen, 30, also questioned why she had voted Conservative. “In terms of credibility, the Conservatives have gone down and down and down,” he said, with panel members nodding in unison. The pension triple lock was a much easier matter as everyone believed that pensioners deserved to enjoy the money they had worked hard for during their lifetime. Charity product manager Tiffany, 30, added: “Just because they live in a million pound house doesn’t mean their heating was on.” Leigh went to the Tories for the first time in over 100 years at the last election. Recent research has found that Sunak is likely to win back blue-wall voters who left the Tories under Boris Johnson over Partygate and Brexit, but has more of a challenge in attracting typical red-wall voters. Just under a third (32%) who switched to the Tories in 2019 said they would continue to vote the same way if asked, according to a poll by Public First for More in Common. Luke Tryl, UK director of More in Common, said: “Whether it was price rises, interest rate rises or measures announced in this Budget, this group was angry and fed up with working families being constantly squeezed. “The biggest worry for the Tories must be that while this group of Tory voters for the first time in 2019 understood the importance of getting the economy back on track, they didn’t believe that the people making the decisions about how to fix things they understood their life. or was on their side.”
