Women are losing faith that U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer can turn their fortunes around, a problem that threatens both the Labour government and its ambitions to boost the economy.
GfK consumer-sentiment data show that Britons lost confidence in both the country’s and their own finances in the run-up to the October 2024 budget. But while men’s assessments of their own finances have since bounced back, women are still gloomier than they were before fiscal fears kicked in.
That matters for both politics and growth. From food prices and utility bills to child care and diversity policies, women say the issues they care most about have worsened since Labour came into power last summer. Many also work part-time, in roles most exposed to the government’s payroll cost increases, so they’ve felt little benefit from the "green shoots” government ministers point to, such as rising real incomes, a U.S. trade deal, and the fastest private-sector growth in a year.
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