Voters’ economic gloom worsens as tariff fears bite
UK voters are increasingly downbeat about the economy as President Trump’s tariff announcements have further dampened Brits’ confidence, according to the latest City PM/Freshwater Strategy poll.
The global economy is still reeling from the President’s Rose Garden speech, where Trump announced sweeping tariffs on countries around the world, with markets nosediving across Asia and Europe on Monday morning.
The UK was not spared from taxes on goods exports – and voters are now growing increasingly worried about what these tariffs could mean for the price of goods and their own economic security.
The share of voters who expect the UK economy to worsen in the next twelve months has risen to 60 per cent.
This is the highest figure since the monthly poll of over 1,000 eligible voters began in January this year.
More than a quarter of respondents said they predicted the UK economy to worsen “a lot”, the survey also showed.
The research was conducted amidst a hellish week for businesses and households that has already been dubbed ‘Awful April’.
In addition to Trump’s announcement of ten per cent tariffs on all UK imports, voters saw their energy and water bills rise sharply while hikes to employers’ national insurance contributions and a higher national minimum wage came into effect on Sunday.
The prospect of higher bills have left UK voters fearing for their income and savings as over half of voters believe their household finances will be worse off in the next year.
This constitutes a sharp rise since March when under half of respondents said they expected their personal finances to deteriorate.
More concerningly, some 53 per cent of voters responding said they now expect their living standards to drop.
The new pessimistic outlook on the economy puts Prime Minister Keir Starmer under further pressure to turn the economy around while adapting to Trump’s trade policies.
Method note: Freshwater Strategy interviewed n=1,250 eligible voters in the UK, aged 18+ online, between 4-6 April 2025. Margin of Error +/- 2.8%. Data are weighted to be representative of UK voters.