Sir Keir Starmer’s standing with the public remains deeply negative, fresh polling indicates, though the Labour leader’s ratings show signs of a tentative recovery from their lowest ebb and are still some way from the historic depths plumbed by his shortest-serving predecessor.
According to regular tracking by the pollster YouGov, which asks whether people have a favourable or unfavourable opinion of key figures, Sir Keir’s net favourability score has improved to -47. This represents a ten-point rise from January, when just 18% of respondents held a favourable opinion of him against 75% who held an unfavourable one, producing a net rating of -57.
Historical Lows and the Truss Benchmark
For context, the most brutal net favourability score recorded by YouGov in recent years was not Sir Keir’s. That dubious distinction belongs to Liz Truss, whose brief tenure as Prime Minister ended in October 2022. At that time, her net favourability slumped to -70, a figure that sets a modern benchmark for political unpopularity.
The most recent data for Sir Keir, which was published last week, suggests that while he continues to be viewed unfavourably by a significant majority, the intensity of that negative feeling has eased slightly since the start of the year.
