Prime Minister Keir Starmer launched the government’s 10 Year Health Plan in July (Alamy)
3 min read15 October
Public trust in Labour as being the strongest party on the NHS is waning, with Reform UK only three percentage points behind, according to research shared with PoliticsHome.
Ipsos polling, included in analysis with the Health Foundation think tank for the recent party conference season, shows that only 18 per cent of the public in September felt Labour would do the best job in improving the NHS compared to the other political parties, down from 24 per cent six months earlier in March.
Meanwhile, public trust in Reform to improve the NHS has increased from 11 per cent to 15 per cent over the same period, putting Nigel Farage’s party only three percentage points behind the governing Labour Party.
The Conservatives saw no change in public trust in their ability to govern the NHS between March and September (at 10 per cent), while trust in both the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party to run the NHS increased by one percentage point each, to 7 and 5 per cent respectively.
The research was carried out in early September and interviewed 2,272 people online. It is part of a wider look at public views on the NHS over a year on from Labour’s general election win in July last year, authored by Health Foundation assistant director Pete Stilwell and Ipsos research director Kate Duxbury.
Survey results showing the change in public trust in political parties to improve the NHS between March and September 2025 (Ipsos)
The NHS has historically been one of Labour’s strongest policy areas, with the health service itself having been established by Clement Attlee’s Labour government in 1948.
According to YouGov’s latest research, health is the third most important issue for UK voters, coming after only migration and the economy.
Keir Starmer put reducing NHS waiting times at the heart of Labour’s election-winning manifesto. The government is committed to making sure 92 per cent of waits are within 18 weeks before the next general election. According to Health Foundation research published late last month, however, the government faces falling just slightly short of hitting that headline target as things stand.
Ministers face a tricky few months on the health front, with industrial action over pay combined with winter pressures expected to put the health service under severe strain.
“Equally striking is the overall lack of trust in any party on the NHS,” said Stilwell, commenting on the findings.
“When asked about which party would do the best job to improve the NHS, more than 2 in 5 answered ‘none’ or ‘don’t know’.”
Stilwell told PoliticsHome that the results show that “the door is wide open for taking the initiative on the NHS”.
“The stakes couldn’t be higher for Labour, which has historically gone into elections with a commanding lead on the question of who is most trusted on the NHS,” he added.
