Consumer confidence takes unexpected dip in May following Conservative election victory

Consumer confidence amongst Britons took an unexpected dip in May as the country gears up for five more years under Conservative rule.

Following news that the Conservatives had unexpectedly emerged as the clear winner in the general election, consumer confidence fell by three points, with GfK – the firm that analyses the data – saying that "the public are not too confident about economic life" with David Cameron occupying number 10.

The market research firm said that consumer optimism in May was at +1, still a positive but a relatively steep decline from the +4 that was recorded in April.

Nick Moon, managing director of Social Research at GfK, said: "In the short term, this suggests that despite rewarding them with a majority in the House of Commons, the public are not too confident about economic life under the Conservatives, given that almost all of the fieldwork for this month was conducted after the election, and the Index stands three points lower than last month.

"In the longer term, we seem to be in another of the periods of stasis that the Index goes through from time to time. Of the last 13 months, the Index has been within two points either side of 0 on all but three of them."