Most party leaders’ ratings are largely unchanged since before party conference season, though Zack Polanski is becoming more well-known
It’s received wisdom that party conference season offers party leaders the opportunity to refresh their image and change the narrative for their party. Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch’s make-or-break conference speeches were largely well-received within their respective parties, but have they shifted the public’s view?
Keir Starmer favourability, October 2025
Opinion towards Keir Starmer is largely unchanged since last month’s favourability ratings, with just 21% of Britons holding a favourable opinion of the prime minister and 72% seeing him unfavourably.
This leaves Starmer with a net a favourability rating of -51, which is the lowest recorded by YouGov so far.
Attitudes toward Starmer among Labour voters remain divided, with 43% holding a positive opinion of the Labour leader and 50% seeing him in a negative light.
Kemi Badenoch favourability, October 2025
Kemi Badenoch has likewise not managed to shift the public’s negative view of her, with 54% of Britons still seeing the Conservative leader unfavourably, while just one in five (21%) hold a favourable opinion of her. Badenoch’s net rating of -33 is nonetheless not her worst.
Nigel Farage favourability, October 2025
Nigel Farage’s standing with the British public is also within the same ballpark as it was a month ago. Three in ten Britons (30%) have a favourable opinion of the Reform UK leader, while roughly twice as many (63%) see Farage negatively, leaving him with a net rating of -33.
Ed Davey favourability, October 2025
Similarly largely unchanged since last month is opinion towards Ed Davey, with the public remaining split in their view of the Lib Dem leader. For the 29% who see him favourably, a consistent 33% see him unfavourably. This gives Davey a net favourability score of -4 in October.
Zack Polanski favourability, October 2025
Bucking the unchanging trend is Zack Polanski. One in six Britons (17%) now have a favourable opinion of the recently elected Green leader, up seven points since mid-September. This is, though, matched by a largely unchanged fifth of Britons (21%) seeing the self-proclaimed ‘eco-populist’ unfavourably.
Polanski is clearly managing to reach levels of awareness that recent Green leaders have found hard to achieve. While six in ten Britons (62%) may currently not know how they see him, this is down from 70% saying so last month and roughly eight in ten (77-82%) being unsure of their view of his predecessors Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay in our August poll, despite them having been in office for four years.
Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana favourability, October 2025
After months of speculation, the new left-wing party associated with Jeremy Corbyn is now officially registered, with membership open and a date for the launch conference announced. The process of doing so, though, was not easy, with a split emerging between Corbyn and its other major figure Zarah Sultana.
While attitudes towards Corbyn had been slightly improving, the rows appear to have taken their toll on the former Labour leader. Just 25% of Britons now have a favourable opinion of Corbyn, down three points since September, while 63% have an unfavourable view of him, an increase of four points.
This fall in net rating from -31 to -38 is particularly concentrated among 2024 Green voters, where it has fallen from +42 to +16, though it has also dropped from +6 to -7 among Labour voters.
There has also been an increase in unfavourable opinion towards Sultana, with 29% of Britons now having a negative opinion of the left-winger, up three points from last month, relative to 12% seeing her favourably.
Other senior political figures favourability, October 2025
Ahead of next month’s budget, just one in seven Britons (14%) have a favourable view of Rachel Reeves, while 63% see the chancellor unfavourably, both figures unchanged from last month.
Andy Burnham’s behaviour at the Labour conference might have been controversial within the party, but he remains the most popular Labour figure with the British public, who are divided 30% favourable to 28% unfavourable in their opinion of the mayor of Greater Manchester.
Tony Blair is reportedly set to make a return to the world stage with a key role in the reconstruction of Gaza, but a return to domestic politics would likely be a little harder. Two thirds of Britons (65%) see the former prime minister unfavourably, compared to just 22% who see the face of New Labour positively. Even among Labour voters, 51% see the three-time election winner negatively, relative to 37% having a favourable opinion of Blair.
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Photo: Getty
