A possible recovery in Rishi Sunak’s ratings is now in doubt
Having seen an uptick in his personal favourability following the start of the election campaign, Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives were doubtless hoping that this would be the start of a broader recovery for the party.
Now, almost a week later, further improvement has failed to materialise. Having seen his net favourability rating increase from -51 to -42 last week, Sunak’s score has now fallen back to -48. Only one in five (22%) have a positive view of the prime minister (-3 from last week), compared to 70% with an unfavourable opinion (+3).
There is a similar story among 2019 Conservative voters. Prior to the election being called, Rishi Sunak scored -14 among this group. Immediately afterwards this had risen to +2, but a week later it now stands at -4.
Public feelings toward the Conservative party in general broadly mirror sentiment toward its leader: 22% have a positive view and 68% have a negative one, for a net score of -46.
Keir Starmer continues to be substantially less unpopular than the man whose job he is trying to take. One in three have a favourable view of the Labour leader (37%, +3 from last week), but half still have a negative opinion (50%, -3). This gives Stamer a net score of -13.
Labour continue to be slightly more popular than their leader: 43% of Britons have a positive view of the party, compared to 46% with a negative view, for a net score of -3.
Minor party leaders are mostly unknown to the public
This week’s poll included a range of national party leaders. Ed Davey is the most prominent of these, although 49% of Britons still don’t take a view of the Lib Dem leader. One in seven (15%) have a positive take on Davey, compared to 35% with an unfavourable view.
Reform UK leader Richard Tice is popular with 10% of the public but unpopular with 24%, and unknown to two thirds (66%).
The Green party co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay are even less well known. Fully 82-84% have no view on the two Greens, while a mere 2-4% have a positive opinion and 13-14% a negative one.
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