New polling shows voters are unconvinced that taxes should rise at the Budget to ‘protect the NHS’
Ahead of the Budget Future Health’s polling on the NHS has been covered today in the Times and it shows the scale of the task facing the Government in selling tax rises in the upcoming Budget to ‘protect the NHS’.
The Chancellor Rachel Reeves used her scene setting Budget speech on 4 November to argue that protecting the NHS was an important rationale for tax rises.[1] Reports have strongly suggested that the Chancellor has asked the Office for Budget Responsibility to consider a rise in income tax as part of Labour’s Budget proposals.[2]
Traditionally polls and surveys have shown public support for higher taxes to fund the NHS, although there has been some evidence that recently this has fallen.[3] [4]
However this polling conducted by Deltapoll and commissioned by Future Health Research following Reeves’s speech shows the scale of the challenge facing the Government in making an argument for higher taxes to fund the NHS. Whilst 37% of voters say that income tax should be increased to fund the NHS, 45% say it should not, with NHS spending either staying at the same rate as today or falling.
Voters are also unconvinced that higher taxes will make a difference to NHS performance. Whilst 39% think it will make the NHS a lot or a little better. 42% think it will make either no difference or make the NHS perform a lot or much worse than today.
Such findings reflect growing public concerns about NHS performance. Just 9% of voters think that the NHS has improved in the last six months and 50% think that services have got worse. Women in particular are more likely to say that the service has deteriorated (56% vs 44% for men).
Richard Sloggett, Programme Director of Future Health Research who commissioned the polling said ‘This polling shows growing public fatigue about tax increases to protect and fund the NHS. A specific rise in income tax to fund the NHS does not enjoy majority support and the public does not feel that the recent increase in national insurance has delivered improvements in performance. The Government wants the NHS to be its insurance policy at the next election. However there are big questions about whether the increasing premium it is having to pay for it is worth it.’
Notes to editors
Deltapoll interviewed 2,039 UK adults online between the 8th to 11th November 2025. The data have been weighted to be representative of the UK adult population as a whole.
Full data tables are available here.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/chancellors-scene-setter-speech-ahead-of-budget-2025