How popular is Keir Starmer?

Plus: How the Labour PM compares to past premiers

Keir Starmer has been Prime Minister since 5th July 2024. He began his premiership with just four-in-ten Britons holding a favourable view towards him, and a touch under that holding an unfavourable view.

On the net numbers he was in the green. But compared to David Cameron, the last Prime Minister to come in on an election win, these numbers pale poorly.

For much of his leadership of the Labour Party, between 30 and per cent of us did not know what to think of Keir Starmer. Only after the Liz Truss mini-budget did opinion warm to the Leader of the Opposition. But relative to other LOTOs, his were still a muted series of ratings.

Compared to past Prime Ministers, Starmer’s start is a poor one.

As of day 300, Starmer ranked the worst performing Prime Minister of the last nine (once you exclude, of course, Liz Truss).

Whereas Starmer’s ratings plateaued around day 300, Gordon Brown’s plummeted. And Theresa May’s - whose own performance in the 2017 General Election campaign ruptured what goodwill the voters had for her - went from +16 to -16.

Approval ratings are important to measure that public goodwill. But in isolation they can be deceiving. Boris Johnson and David Cameron both went to the country in the net negative. But it didn’t matter, for their Labour counterparts were vastly more unpopular.

Margaret Thatcher, too, didn’t perform admirably with the public when competing for high office in 1979. In fact, she polled below incumbent James Callaghan. But the strength of feeling for change was so great the Tory win became inevitable.

This page is LIVE, and updates when the Britain Elects Poll Tracker is updated.

The data used to build these trackers comes from a variety of sources. For the Prime Ministers from Tony Blair onwards the Britain Elects Poll Aggregate is the primary source. Prior Premiers were sourced from a variety of outlets, including Gallup poll books and Mark Pack’s PollBase.