Liz Truss nearly as unpopular among British voters as Vladimir Putin

Liz Truss' popularity is sinking as quickly as the economy

After already having the ignominy of being more unpopular than Boris Johnson ever was during his time as prime minister, Liz Truss has almost sunk to an even more remarkable depth. A poll from YouGov published on Tuesday morning (October 18) found that Truss' net favourability had plummeted even further, to an incredible -70. This is a 14 point drop since last week, when Kwasi Kwarteng was still chancellor and Jeremy Hunt hadn't yet put the Prime Minister's entire economic philosophy through a shredder. For context, her leadership rival Rishi Sunak has a net favourability rating of -18, and Keir Starmer has a score of -5. But journalist Owen Jones then took to Twitter to point out a far more embarrassing comparison - that Truss is almost as unpopular with the British public as Vladimir Putin is. The Russian president has a net favourability rating of -74. https://twitter.com/owenjones84/status/1582291581775712256?s=46&t=7kal10aXim1Uy_s8MJN0mg According to YouGov, just 10 percent of Brits have a favourable impression of Truss, down from 15% in a previous survey on 11-12 October. Who are these 10 percent, and what world are they living in? Truss continues to be staggeringly unpopular among her own party's supporters as well, with just one in five Tory voters having a favourable view of her, and 71 percent having an unfavourable view. This gives her a net favourability score of -51 among Conservatives. Tory MPs have already started calling for Truss to step down, and there are discussions in the party about how she could be ousted from her position. But on Monday, the PM told the BBC that she would lead the Tories into the next election. Truss apologised for going "too far, too fast" with the mini-budget last month but said she remained committed to a "low tax, high growth economy." Related links:

• Muppet Show theme tune reimagined in brilliant Liz Truss spoof
• Former CIA director says US would destroy Russia's entire military if Putin uses nuclear weapons
• Brits told to expect blackouts for several hours on cold weekday evenings