CUTTING NHS waiting times and easing the cost-of-living are top of the agenda for voters who are “totally exhausted” with status quo politics, a major post-election survey has found.

Despite Labour winning the election with the lowest vote share of any governing party to enter No 10, the study found non-Labour voters believed the party had a “mandate for change.”

This is because this month’s election was the latest in a series of votes that had seen the public demand a change from the status quo following the 2016 Brexit referendum and 2019 general election, said Luke Tryl, executive director of More In Common, which published the study with UCL today.

He said that there’s a “profound warning” for PM Sir Keir Starmer that that people will start to look elsewhere if change is not delivered again.

Mr Tryl said the public would judge the new government’s success on two top factors: cutting NHS waiting lists and lowering the cost of living.

But while the public would give Labour credit if it could deliver practical improvements, delivery alone would not be enough to satisfy people’s desire for change, due to a feeling of “futility” among the electorate.

He said recent political upheaval has left the public feeling totally exhausted and that politicians had “basically lost respect for the people who keep the show on the road.”

More in Common said: “Delivery itself will not be an antidote to the pervasive feeling that it is not just public services that are broken, but our entire democratic settlement.

“The public believe that settlement has been broken by politicians and policymakers who are in it for themselves, mired in sleaze and scandal, and who simply don’t understand the struggles, worries or concerns of the public.”

Mr Tryl added that the Prime Minister’s promise of a politics that “treads more lightly on people’s lives” was possibly his most important pledge.

He said: “There is a real premium on this government, but also the Conservatives as they think about how to rebuild — talking a language of respect and thinking about how they can demonstrate respect in their policies and in delivery.”

With no “ideological anchor” uniting Labour’s coalition, Mr Tryl said, delivery was key to the party remaining in power.

A spokeswoman for Momentum said: “The NHS is the greatest achievement of [Clement] Attlee’s postwar Labour government. But now, after 14 years of Tory austerity, it has been left in crisis.

"If today’s Labour government wants to keep voters on side it must renationalise the NHS, end all privatised outsourcing and introduce above-inflation pay rises for healthcare workers.

"Investing in our public services is more popular and urgent than ever. Without a bold programme, which includes defending our NHS from corporate lobbyists, the government risks boosting the prospects of the far right.”