Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Deputy PM Angela Rayner (Picture: Reuters/Shutterstock/Metro)
The British public is a little less keen on Sir Keir Starmer and his Labour cabinet after six weeks of them being in power, a new poll has found.
Since the election on July 4, the prime minister’s net approval has dipped from plus seven to zero, with the same percentage (38%) of people having a favourable and unfavourable view of him.
The same poll, carried out by Ipsos between August 9 and 12, found that 52% of Brits thought the UK was heading in the wrong direction.
That compared to just 22% who said the country was on the road to success.
Despite the drop in his approval rating, the PM was still the most popular politician asked about in the poll – and his net rating of zero was considerably better than Rishi Sunak’s figure of minus 10 at the same point in his tenure.
Unfortunately for Sunak, that was about as good as it ever got for him. His net approval at the moment is minus 38.
Starmer’s cabinet colleagues might not be as crushingly unpopular as that, but they’re hardly glowing.
The net approval rating for Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner was minus three, while Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is on minus five and Chancellor Rachel Reeves is on minus eight.
How popular are the UK’s top politicians?
Sir Keir Starmer (Prime Minister): 38% favourable 38% unfavourable
Rachel Reeves (Chancellor): 27% favourable 35% unfavourable
Angela Rayner (Deputy Prime Minister): 33% favourable 37% unfavourable
Yvette Cooper (Home Secretary): 28% favourable 33% unfavourable
Rishi Sunak (Leader of the Opposition): 20% favourable 58% unfavourable
Sir Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat leader): 22% favourable 31% unfavourable
Gideon Skinner, senior director of UK politics at Ipsos, said Starmer had better ratings than either Boris Johnson or Sunak two months after they became PM.
However, he added: ‘There are signs of a small increase in public criticism of Labour, the Prime Minister and other key Cabinet ministers this month, but just as important for their longer-term prospects is the level of pessimism around the state of the country.
‘This is not as bad as it was under the Conservatives, but half of Britons still think things are going in the wrong direction, and delivering on the public’s desire for improvements will be key when the honeymoon period ends.’
Keir Starmer hasn’t had much opportunity to relax in his first few weeks as PM (Picture: Joe Giddens – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Rachel Reeves is the least popular Labour politician featured in the poll (Picture: Jonathan Brady/AFP)
It’s unclear what might have led some voters to go off Starmer and his government – though it’s normal for approval ratings to fall after a leader or party take power.
The Ipsos poll was conducted while the widespread UK riots were still fresh in many people’s minds, which may have impacted their sense of whether the country was heading in the right direction.
A YouGov poll conducted at the height of the disorder found that 49% of respondents thought Starmer was handling the situation badly, compared to 31% who said he was doing well.
An Opinium poll for the Observer released yesterday was kinder, with 43% approving of the government’s handling of the riots and 30% disapproving.
Other major moments since July 4 that may have affected the public’s view of Starmer include the first Labour King’s Speech for 14 years and his decision to remove the whip from seven MPs who voted against the government in a vote over the two-child benefit cap.
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