Tories must be wary of Ed Miliband’s cost of living gambit

Fresh polling (£) from The Times and YouGov today says that the Tories still have much work to do to convince voters that they will directly benefit from an improving national economy. The good news for the Conservatives is that confidence in the economy is up. Nearly a third of those polled think that they will be ‘satisfied’ with the economy this time next year. This is a eleven-point jump from the last time the question was asked in June — and a steady trend upwards over the last year:

But only 16 per cent think that their personal finances will get better over the next 12 months. On pay, 58 per cent of those working full-time and part time (more than eight hours a week) believe their pay will go up by less than inflation, or go down.