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06th Oct 2022

Liz Truss is already more unpopular with the British public than Boris Johnson ever was

Charlie Herbert

Liz Truss is already more unpopular with the British public than Boris Johnson ever was

Fair play to Liz Truss, this is a remarkable achievement

After just a month in office, Liz Truss has managed to become one of the most unpopular leaders of all time, becoming even more disliked than her predecessor Boris Johnson.

In a YouGov survey conducted between October 1 and 2, just 14 per cent of the public said they had a favourable impression of Truss.

This means her popularity has plummeted by almost half in just a few days, with 26 percent saying they were in favour of the new Prime Minister in a survey on 21-22 September.

Of course, in that time we’ve had the now-infamous mini-budget from her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, which tanked the pound.

This was followed by an embarrassing U-turn on cutting the top rate of income tax, and it seems the damage has been done according to this latest poll.

Liz Truss now has a net favorability rating of -59. For context, the lowest rating Boris Johnson ever sunk to was -53 in early July.

Even former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn never dropped as low as Truss as, with his lowest score being -55.

Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of those surveyed see Ms Truss in an unfavourable light, with more than half (55 percent) viewing her very unfavourably.

Neither Corbyn nor Johnson ever had a net favorability rating as low as Truss’ is now (Getty)

And unsurprisingly this has rubbed off on her party as well, which now has a net favorability of -50, which is down from -33 in September’s poll.

Even Tory voters can’t stand her, with Conservatives now  twice as likely to have an unfavourable view of the new prime minister (60%) as a positive one (30%).

Back in September, more than half of Tories asked had a positive view of Truss.

The PM capped off a turbulent Conservative Party Conference on Wednesday by promising to “stay the course” and pursue growth at all costs.

Along with being unpopular in the polls, the Prime Minister doesn’t seem to command much authority over her party either.

On Tuesday, home secretary Suella Braverman doubled down on her calls for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – even though that is not government policy.

Meanwhile, Penny Mordaunt, the Leader of the House of Commons, also seemed to be at odds with Truss over benefits payments, which she argued should go up in line with inflation, a stance supported by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith.

And an ex-Cabinet minister has described her as a ‘dead woman walking.’

Unperturbed, Truss told Tory delegates that she is focused on three priorities: “Growth, growth, growth.”

Her speech got off to a rocky start after she was heckled by environmental campaigners holding a flag which read “who voted for this?”

They were later identified by Truss as “enemies of enterprise” as part of an “anti-growth coalition” including opposition parties, trade unions and “Brexit-deniers”.

Truss used ‘Moving On Up’ by the M People as the song she walked out to, possibly in reference to rampant levels of inflation.

But the move quickly backfired, with band founder Mike Pickering hitting out at the use of their song for the occasion, saying they tried to stop it.

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