Sunak is 10 points being Labour’s Keir Starmer in terms of who is seen as the better leader, after a brutal week in Westminster…reports Asian Lite News
Rishi Sunak’s personal ratings have slipped to the lowest of his premiership in terms of being the best person to lead the UK, as he tries to hold a fractured Conservative Party together, a media report said.
Sunak is 10 points being Labour’s Keir Starmer in terms of who is seen as the better leader, after a brutal week in Westminster.
He was backed by just 33 per cent of those polled by Redfield and Wilton Strategies after Boris Johnson announced he was quitting Parliament and his controversial resignation honours list was published.
Keir was on 43 per cent, and his personal approval rating has also risen by 4 per cent ahead of three key by-elections Labour needs to win to show they are on course for power at the next general election.
However, the battle for Boris Johnson’s former Uxbridge and South Ruislip could be tighter than expected.
While Boris’ 2019 majority of 7,210 should be well within the sights of candidate Danny Beales, the imminent expansion of Labour mayor Sadiq Khan’s Ulez vehicle tax scheme to the outer London borough could yet cause a backlash.
However, there is the additional complicating factor of an insurgent campaign of rightwing Reclaim party leader Laurence Fox, which could claim some Tory votes.
Constituency-level polling by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft earlier this month found voters were quite evenly divided as to whether they would prefer a Conservative government with Rishi Sunak as prime minister (29 per cent) or a Labour government led by Sir Keir (27 per cent) – while 30 per cent wanted neither.
The Tory civil war that has helped the party plummet int he polls is unlikely to die down any time soon.
This is Sunak’s second-lowest approval rating since becoming Prime Minister last October, with only one worse figure of -23 per cent in January. He is least popular among Generation X voters, with a rating of -34 per cent in the 45 to 54-year-old age group, and -29 per cent among those aged 55 to 64.
The PM is most popular with those aged over 65, however, with a comparatively better score of -4 per cent. This is in keeping with the idea that the over-65s are more inclined to vote Conservative.
The polling is likely to fuel doubts among some Conservative MPs, particularly those who support Boris Johnson, that Sunak is the right person to lead them into the next general election. In more bad news for Sunak, just over half, or 52 per cent, of those who voted Conservative in 2019 say they would do so again, suggesting the swathe of “Red Wall” seats won by Johnson would fall back into Labour hands.
Sir Keir Starmer’s personal rating has dipped into negative territory for the first time since last August, at -1 per cent. While this is not a dramatic fall from the past few months, the polling does not suggest an overwhelming surge in popularity for Sir Keir personally, with the next general election potentially looming in the next year.
Unsurprisingly for a Labour leader, Sir Keir is more popular with younger age groups, scoring an approval rating of +6 per cent among the 18 to 24-year-olds, +12 per cent for 25 to 34-year-olds, and +9 per cent among 35 to 44-year-olds.
But the poll still points to a Labour landslide at the next election, with Sir Keir’s party stretching the lead over the Conservatives to 17 points, up three points on last month and back to where it was in March. Labour are on 44 per cent, the Tories 27 per cent and the Lib Dems on 10 per cent. If repeated at a general election, the Conservatives would lose more than 150 seats, BMG Research said.
