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Politics

09th Oct 2024

Keir Starmer is now as unpopular as Nigel Farage

Charlie Herbert

Just in case the Prime Minister was in any doubt about his honeymoon period being over…

Sir Keir Starmer is now as unpopular as Nigel Farage according to a new poll from YouGov.

We’re just over three months into Starmer’s Labour government after their landslide victory in the general election, but since then the prime minister’s popularity has only gone one way: down.

Despite having warned Brits his government would need to make tough decisions, policies such as scrapping the winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners haven’t gone down well.

Meanwhile, the recent donations row did nothing to help Starmer’s popularity, whilst there is continuing anger from many over the government’s handling of the Israel-Gaza war.

Now, a new poll from YouGov has found that Starmer’s popularity amongst the public is continuing to fall.

The new research found that just 27 per cent of people had a favourable opinion of the prime minister, compared to 28 per cent when asked about Farage.

For both politicians, 63 per cent of those asked said they had an unfavourable opinion of them.

The figures put Starmer’s net popularity rating at minus 36, although this was still a better score than outgoing Tory leader Rishi Sunak (minus 42).

Of the major party leaders, it was Ed Davey of the Lib Dems who fared best. He scored a net popularity of minus seven, although this was largely thanks to 43 per cent of respondents saying they didn’t know what their opinion of him was.

Not a single member of Sir Keir’s cabinet had a net positive rating. Chancellor Rachel Reeves had the lowest score of minus 29, whilst deputy PM Angela Rayner was seen as the second least favourable Cabinet minister among the public, with a minus 25 net rating.

The most favourable rating went to transport secretary Louise Haigh, who scored minus eight.

The Conservative leadership hopefuls didn’t score well either. Tom Tugendhat, who was knocked out of the contest yesterday, scored best, whilst James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick both scored -19.

Kemi Badenoch was the least popular, with a net popularity of -27.