17% of Britons say Corbyn was a good Labour leader, compared to 11% who say so of Starmer
Tomorrow is ten years since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party, a seismic moment in British politics which defied expectations from the start of the campaign, when the veteran of the Labour left was loaned nominations merely to ‘broaden the debate’.
Now, though, having been expelled from the party in 2020, he is preparing to launch a new party with fellow ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana. So how do Britons see his leadership in retrospect and what are the potential strengths and weaknesses of his new vehicle?
Do Britons think Corbyn was a good leader of the Labour Party?
In hindsight, just 17% of Britons think Jeremy Corbyn was a good or even great leader of the Labour Party, against a clear majority (57%) feeling he was a poor or terrible leader. A further 13% believe his leadership was average.
Nonetheless, this does compare slightly favourably to evaluations of current leader Keir Starmer. Only 11% of Britons describe the prime minister as a good or great Labour leader, while 22% say he has been average in the role and 60% would label his party leadership as poor or terrible.
Former prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown fare better. A third of Britons (33%) say Blair was a good or great Labour leader, though an identical number (33%) say he was a bad leader. Just over one in five Britons (22%) evaluate Brown’s leadership positively, with 33% saying he was an average leader and 30% thinking he was a poor leader or worse.
Labour voters themselves are more likely to say Corbyn is a good or great Labour leader than Starmer (33% vs 22%), though with more evaluating both Corbyn (43%) and Starmer’s (37%) leaderships in negative terms.
Despite this, if asked to choose between the two, Labour voters are more likely to say Starmer has done a better job as leader of the party by a margin of 46% to 32%.
Britons as a whole are evenly split between the two, with 30% saying Starmer has been the better leader, while 27% feel Corbyn did the better job.
Most Green voters (54%) see Corbyn as having done the better job as Labour leader, with Reform UK voters also tending towards the left-winger by 26% to 16%.
Where are Britons likely to trust Jeremy Corbyn’s new party?
Launching a new political party is no easy task, with them typically needing to find a particular niche in order to at least hold on to any support.
Of the areas polled, protecting minority groups is the area in which Britons hold the most confidence in a new left-wing party led by Corbyn and Sultana, with 36% of Britons trusting them at least a fair amount on the issue. However, this compares to nearly half of Britons (46%) not trusting them to protect minorities.
Indeed, much like Reform UK, more Britons do not trust them in any of the areas polled than do trust them. Nonetheless, other relative strengths for the party include the NHS, poverty and the environment, with three in ten Britons (29-30%) having confidence in a Corbyn-led party on these issues.
By contrast, defence and the economy are likely to be weaker areas for the party, with just 18-19% of Britons saying they would trust a Corbyn-led party on the issues, relative to 64-65% saying they would not. A similar two thirds of Britons (66%) say they do not trust that the party would be able to form an effective government.
Green voters are consistently the most likely to say they would trust a Corbyn-led party across the areas polled, though are divided when it comes to trusting the yet-to-be launched party on defence (-2 net trust score), supporting businesses (+2), crime (+5) and managing the economy (+6).
Labour voters tend to say they would trust such a party when it comes to protecting minorities (+23), the NHS (+15), the environment (+14) and poverty (+14), while being more split on issues like running public services (+1), the cost of living (-3) and taxation (-5).
With a net trust score of -23, defence is set to be a particular weakness for a new left-wing party led by Corbyn and Sultana among Labour voters, as is their perceived ability to form an effective government (-20), manage the economy (-18) or represent the UK abroad (-18).
Corbyn’s party-to-be holds a net negative trust score in all the areas polled among Lib Dem, Conservative and Reform UK voters.
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Photo: Getty
