Labour’s poll lead has plummeted since the general election, according to a new poll, which sets out the political impact of Sir Keir Starmer’s first two months in office.
Since coming to power, Labour has announced swinging cuts to infrastructure project, slashed winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners, handed above-inflation pay rises to their union paymasters and cut housing targets in London.
Despite being outwardly cocky about his election win, however, a new poll by More In Common deals a hammer blow to Sir Keir Starmer today.
It reveals that since July, Labour’s popularity has sunk by six points, to just 29%.
This means that even in the midst of a leadership election, the Tories are now just four points behind the Sir Keir Starmer.
Sir Keir Starmer has plummeted in popularity (Image: Getty)
While the Tories remain static on 25% since the election, other smaller parties are the main beneficiaries of Labour’s misfortune.
Reform UK is up 3 points to a whopping 18%, with the party’s chairman Zia Yusuf observing: “Reform is winning support from Labour at great speed.”
“This is just *2 months* post an election they won.
“Imagine what a few years will do. No wonder Starmer is petrified.”
The Liberal Democrats are up 2 points to 14%, while the Greens have increased the same amount to 8%.
The SNP remain static on just 3% of the vote following their near-wipeout at the election.
The poll was conducted from September 10 to 12, meaning those asked for their voting intention will have been able to take into account this week’s vote by Labour MPs in favour of slashing Winter Fuel Payments.
Reacting to the shock poll, Tory commentator Andrew Lilico said that while polls don’t matter at the moment, “it’s pretty remarkable to have won a majority of over 170 so recently yet already be polling under 30% & with a lead of only 4%.”
Former Tory advisor Iain Mansfield added: “Truly startling to see no party with over 30% vote share.”
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Humiliation for Keir Starmer as PM’s popularity plummets to record low in bombshell poll
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer faces questions from journalists during a visit to Morrisons in (Image: PA)
Sir Keir Starmer’s popularity is as low as it has ever been, according to pollsters Ipsos. Almost half of those surveyed have an unfavourable view of the Prime Minister, barely two months after he came into office.
The company’s latest Political Pulse, taken between September 6, looks at attitudes towards various political parties and their leaders and what direction the country is going in – and makes for grim reading for the Labour leader, as well as his Chancellor, Rachel Reeves.
Just 32 percent of respondents see Sir Keir in a positive light, down six points compared with last month, while 46 percent have an unfavourable view (up eight points), leaving him with a net figure of -14.
The 46 percent unfavourable matches the joint-highest Sir Keir has recorded with Ipsos, just after the disastrous Hartlepool by-election in June 2021.
Meanwhile just 23 percent are favourable towards Rachel Reeves (down four points) with 44 percent unfavourable (up nine), putting her underwater by 21 points.
Sir Keir’s unfavourable rating has hit a record high (Image: Ipsos)
In terms of the Labour Party itself, 36 percent have a favourable view (down four points) and 45 percent hold an unfavourable (up eight).
Sir Keir is likely to take some comfort from the fact that favourability towards both himself and his party is unchanged from August amongst Labour supporters. For instance, 69 percent of 2024 Labour voters are favourable towards Starmer this month and 68 percent were last month.
Nevertheless, in terms of the direction of the country and government performance, 55 percent believe Britain is heading in the wrong direction (up three points from August). This is lower than the final rating recorded under the Tories before the General Election (62 percent in late June) but is higher than the first rating recorded after Labour’s victory in early July (49 percent).
This month’s survey has introduced a new question which will be tracked across the lifetime of this parliament whereby people are asked to mark the government out of 10 in terms of how they are running the country. The Labour Government’s first score is 4.4 out of 10.
There is little enthusiasm for the four Tory leadership challengers either (Image: Getty Images)
There is little for the Conservative Party to celebrate either, with all four remaining candidates (Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat) in net negative territory – although between 40 and 50 percent of those surveyed do not offer an opinion either way.
Just 24 percent have a favourable opinion of the Tories as a whole (up three points) and 52 percent an unfavourable one (down five percent).
Keiran Pedley, Director of Politics at Ipsos, said: “There are some early warning signs in these numbers for Keir Starmer and Labour.
“Whilst the next General Election is several years away – and perceptions of Labour remain stronger than perceptions of the Conservative Party – these figures do represent a sharp drop from those recorded in August.
“Moving forward, Labour will want to strike the right balance between setting public expectations about the pace of change whilst maintaining confidence that the change Labour supporters voted for in July is coming.”
Ipsos interviewed a representative sample of 1,147 adults aged 18 and over across Great Britain. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.
The popularity of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has gone up five points (Image: Getty)
