Nearly six in ten Scottish and Welsh adults disapprove of their devolved governments, with two-thirds disapproving of the UK government
One of the main trends in political polling since last year’s election has been how quickly voters have become dissatisfied with the Labour government.
YouGov’s latest tracker numbers show that 64% of Britons disapprove of the government’s record to date, with just 16% approving of their performance so far. While not yet quite as unpopular as the previous government was when they left office, this represents the highest level of dissatisfaction in the government since the election.
Even among those who voted for Labour in last year’s election, just 38% approve of the government, roughly the same as the 36% who disapprove of Starmer’s governments record.
Do Scottish people approve of their governments?
Of course, some Britons also live under devolved governments in addition to the one at Westminster, with many Scottish and Welsh people similarly unhappy at their government’s performance.
Nearly six in ten Scottish people (58%) disapprove of the record of the SNP-run Scottish government, with just 22% approving of its performance to date.
But in contrast to British Labour voters’ divided reception of the UK government, SNP voters largely approve of the Scottish government, with 56% approving of their record so far and just 22% disapproving.
Even among the larger group of those who voted SNP in the 2021 Scottish parliamentary election, nearly half (46%) are satisfied with the government, relative to a third (33%) who are not. Those who backed the Scottish Greens in 2021 similarly split 45% to 36% towards approving of the Scottish government.
Nonetheless, the verdicts of those who voted for the three main unionist parties in last year’s general election are mostly negative, with 72% of Labour voters, 73% of Lib Dems and 96% of Conservatives expressing disapproval in the Scottish government.
But disapproval of the UK government among Scots is even higher, as well as being more consistent across parties. Two thirds of Scots (66%) have an unfavourable opinion of the British government’s record, including half of those who voted for Labour (53%) in last year’s general election. Disapproval rises to 71% among SNP voters, 75% of Lib Dems and 84% of Scottish Conservative voters.
This compares to only one in eight Scots (12%) seeing the British government in a positive light, including just a quarter of Labour voters (24%).
In all, nearly half of Scots (47%) disapprove of both the UK and Scottish governments, relative to just 6% who are satisfied with them both. One in eight Scottish people (13%) approve of the government at Holyrood, but disapprove of the one at Westminster, while 5% are the other way round.
Do Welsh people approve of their governments?
A similar picture can be seen in Wales, where half of adults (50%) disapprove of both the UK and Welsh governments, compared to only 8% who approve of both.
Only one in eight Welsh people (13%) approve of the UK government’s record to date, against two-thirds (67%) who disapprove. While there is a little less negativity towards the Welsh government (56%), just 19% of Welsh adults approve of its performance.
As elsewhere, even Labour voters in Wales are more likely to see the British government negatively (44%) than positively (29%), though they are divided 35% to 36% in their approval of the Labour-run Welsh government.
Although Plaid Cymru currently sit in opposition in the Senedd, those who voted for the party last July are evenly split 40% to 38% over whether they approve of the Cardiff Bay government. When it comes to Westminster, though, just 15% of Plaid voters see the UK government’s record positively, compared to 58% who see it negatively.
Conservative and Reform UK voters are overwhelmingly critical of both governments, with 93-98% disapproving of Keir Starmer’s governments record and 88-92% disapproving of the government currently led by Eluned Morgan.
See the full results here and here
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Photo: Getty
