But that was before the UK's tremendously successful COVID-19 vaccination programme got under way in December, something that seems to have been among the reasons for Mr Johnson's popularity. Only 17% say a Conservative government with Rishi Sunak as prime minister. Sorting the protocol was in that category, a sensible bit of ground-clearing and confidence-building. It also reveals that Starmers party holds a narrow two-point lead, compared with a three-point lead in the last poll a fortnight ago. If Blairites are now on the rise once again in the Labour Party, what about the man himself? Labour looks to Keir Starmer's readiness to pounce. Meanwhile, he has differentiated Labour simply by eschewing the more indefensible forms of predatory capitalism the current Conservative leadership embraces. The following polls asked about voters' opinions on Sin Berry and Jonathan Bartley, co-leaders of the Green Party from 4 September 2018 to 31 July 2021. LONDON: Keir Starmer, the leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, has picked as his new chief of staff Sue Gray, a government official whose investigation helped catalyse the exit of Boris . politics . And he is now trailing Sir Keir as the most popular candidate to be Prime Minister. Overall, 57% of all voters support this, rising to 78% of Rishi Sunaks own voters. For similar reasons, the Enough is Enough movement has recently emerged, demanding pay rises for workers and higher taxes for the rich. Starmers reluctance to criticise big business or show solidarity with workers has shifted political ground in the UK even further to the right. "Any opposition would be struggling against a government riding the success of the vaccine rollout and the last time the government's approval figures for the pandemic were this positive the Conservatives held a 17 point lead. The prime minister suddenly hit real unpopularity in the last month of the year. A return to power-sharing at Stormont, with the DUP playing second fiddle to Sinn Fin, is a long way off. Latest UK Opinion Polls: Government approval recent changes. Second, it confirmed that he may be starting to steer the Tory party towards a more moderate and pragmatic place. Starmer himself remained grimly determined, with only one outburst of temper or, at least, only one that was reported to the outside world, and that was after a delay of many months, suggesting that the inner team remained loyal throughout. Enough is Enough unequivocally denounces a heartless establishment that, it implies, includes Starmer himself. In March, Boris Johnson's net approval rating rose to +3, meaning that the PM now has a better net approval rating than Keir Starmer for the first time since April 2020. Blair and others involved have always claimed there was no connection between the two events. Sorting the protocol was a sensible bit of ground-clearing and confidence-building. Rishi Sunak during prime ministers questions on Wednesday. Approval for the government's handling of the pandemic is at its highest since mid-April last year, with 47% of adults happy and 33% disapproving. Energy prices have begun to ease. The get together was reeling from its worst efficiency on the poll field since 1935, riven by inner divisions, below hearth over its report of tackling antisemitism and going through an seemingly unassailable Boris Johnson atop an 80-seat majority. Keir Starmer faced a grilling from students during a visit to St. Columb's College on Friday. Some opinion pollsters ask voters which party leader they would prefer as prime minister: Liz Truss (Conservative Party) or Keir Starmer (Labour Party). But the signs are that there will be little enthusiasm for a Labour Party led by him as a replacement. 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And, in a further nod to the business-friendly "New Labour" days of the 1990s and 2000s, he's even tapping Tony Blair's moneymen to fund his bid for power. What it shows is that these guys think Keir is going to win. Although they remain neck-and-neck on 38% each in the traditionally Conservative-voting Blue Wall, Starmer has opened up a lead of 7% in the Red Wall constituencies (three points lower than the 10-point margin he held at the end of January) and a 9% lead across the whole of Great Britain (three points more than at the end of January). Sunak has had luck along the way. For years, we shocked people with Corbyn as leader in the worst way possible and we now need to shock them in positive ways, the shadow Cabinet minister quoted earlier said. The date range for opinion polls is from the 2019 United Kingdom general election, held on 12 December, to the present day. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is trailing Boris Johnson as the British public's preferred prime minister by 17 percentage points, according to a new poll. And further underscoring how divorced she is from the public mood, Truss intends to reverse a planned rise in what is a historically low rate of corporation tax. Jeremy Corbyn approval rating . It was a key insight to recognise that the DUP had overreached itself at the expense of the UKs wider economic and political interests, and was therefore in a weaker position than many assumed. Potential Tory rebels faced a pincer movement of private pressure at Westminster alongside assured ministerial actions on the national stage. Johnsons poor approval ratings have improved slightly at -27, compared with -30 two weeks ago. Copyright 2014 - 2023. After languishing stubbornly behind the government in surveys since his election to head Labour in early 2020, Starmer is now reported to have a seven-point lead over the Tories new leader, Liz Truss, when the public is asked who would do a better job as prime minister. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015. Starmers popularity has actually fallen back slightly, with a net of -6, compared with a neutral satisfaction score in June this year. Lucy Powell described partygate investigator Sue Gray - who plans to join Labour as Sir Keir Starmer's chief of staff - as "impartial" and "really good at her job". The findings which show the Liberal Democrats on 11 per cent, the Greens on 5 per cent and Reform UK on 3 per cent suggest Sir Keir is currently on course to become Prime Minister at the next general election and may win a Commons majority. A moderate Labour MP said we cant be shy about raising money from private individuals, especially if they want to win big at the next election. This takeover of party machinery has crucially extended to the partys finances and fundraising efforts. Sir Keir Starmer - Labour Party Leader. Starmer certainly is not doing so. The following polls asked about voters' opinions on Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the Labour Party until 4 April 2020. Starmer is determined to beat the Tories at their own game, vowing to fight the election on economic growth. Now that would shock people.. Combined with his purges of the Labour left, including Corbyn, using antisemitism as the pretext, Starmer has hollowed out left-wing politics in the UK of any substance. The following polls asked about voters' opinions on Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, co-leaders of the Green Party of England and Wales since October 2021. Only England and Wales jurisdiction apply in all legal matters. Sir Keir Starmer will deliver his conference speech today with the party in a commanding position in the polls (Picture: Metro/YouGov) Labour has hit an historic opinion poll high after a . That has included reneging on his commitment to take back into public ownership key utilities, including gas and electricity. And finally, it worked. Labours leads range from a yawning 31-point gap in our GB poll on the NHS (that lead representing a one-point gain from late January) to a relatively narrow four-point lead over the Conservatives in the Blue Wall as the party most trusted to manage the economy (32% to 28%, down from a 35% to 25% lead in our last Blue Wall Poll of January). On the eve of his big speech, Keir Starmer showed his frustration at being constantly compared with two of his predecessors - Jeremy Corbyn and Tony Blair - and declined to say to which of them he was closer. But he did an important job this week. Survey shows the party was associated with support of politically correct issues. Polls indicate the Tories still lag behind Labour in national opinion . Even Blairs former manager for high value fundraising Vanessa Bowcock is back in a similar role in Starmers office. In his party conference speech in which Corbyn supporters were reduced to impotent heckling Starmer derided Johnson as a trivial politician; in the Commons, Starmer repeated the line the joke is wearing thin. The poll also found voters backing Keir Starmer over Rishi Sunak. He has blamed ballooning debt from the Covid-19 pandemic as the reason. Starmers Labour increasingly looks like a pale replica of the modern Conservative Party, which publicly extols the virtues of unfettered markets while privately skewing the economic battle-space in big businesss favour - a covert socialism, but for the rich only. BOOST for Labour and Keir Starmer after the Autumn Statement - GB News poll reveals, Nationwide hikes up mortgage rates again just weeks after promoting cuts. Having dealt with the party machinery at the last conference, the plan was always that the next one will focus on setting out our plans for Britain. Which will be only too evident as he addresses Labours annual conference next week. Now all the polls are reporting not just that Labour is in the lead but that people would rather have Starmer as prime minister than the incumbent. This is especially true for Labour voters, more than half of whom blame Truss (44%) or Sunak (10%) for the current crisis while only 11% blame global events. The politics of selling it was always going to be a much tougher task. At various dates in the run up to the next United Kingdom general election, various organisations have carried out opinion polling to gauge the opinions that voters hold towards political leaders. The ex-PM said during his think tanks Future of Britain conference last year that he wants to help influence the policy agenda in Westminster over the next decade. I find the best way to judge the . Its 100-a-month business group the Rose Network has more than 500 members, up from 300 less than three years ago. Latest news, analysis and comment on migration in Europe and beyond. The job of being Leader of the Opposition is, famously, the most thankless available in British politics. The hire of Alli as chair of campaign financing was a particularly adroit decision, according to several MPs and party officials. March 2, 2023 10:16 am CET. But Starmers success - assuming it can be maintained - has come at an extraordinarily high political price. 'A poll the other day had . and already Sunak seems to be making inroads into the Labour opinion poll lead, perhaps due to positive coverage of his NI Protocol efforts. Close Blair ally and media entrepreneur Waheed Alli has been appointed by Starmer as the partys head of election fundraising. When politics resumes next week, the Labour leader will have a (courteous) spring in his step The Labour leader said he is glad the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is taking time to consider . Support for the Labour Party has grown in the aftermath of the Autumn Statement, a new poll reveals today. Indeed, Labours biggest backer, the union Unite, has reduced its contributions to the party in retaliation for Starmers efforts to shift away from the socialist policies of Corbyn. . Millionaires clearly want different policy priorities, but it matters to public opinion who is influencing the people who are supposed to be working in our interests?. The following polls asked about voters' opinions on Rishi Sunak, leader of the Conservative Party since 24 October 2022 and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 25 October 2022. Starmer holds an approval rating of -6, unchanged from two weeks ago. Much as I detest Starmer and the current Labour Party he will likely win back the ugly racist Brexit gammons who voted Tory or Farage last election, he won't loose safe seats like mine, and he won't care if a few of the more comfortable and liberal Tory seats flip Lib Dem. Perhaps Sunak should not be too readily dismissed as a caretaker who is seeing out time until Keir Starmer takes over. It is still more likely that Sunak will oversee the end of a long period of Conservative government than its renewal. Instead, she has frozen record high fuel bills, but it is taxpayers, not business, who will face the burden of repaying the 150bn ($170bn) costs further down the road. Latest news, analysis and comment on elections in Europe and beyond. On policy delivery, the Government continues to struggle massively on the three key issues of the economy, the NHS, and immigration. The breach with Rayner was serious, and would continue to be for the rest of the year, but she was no threat to Starmers position as leader. Starmer has sacked one shadow minister, Sam Tarry, the partner of Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner, after Tarry declared that every worker should get a pay rise in line with inflation. Yet Starmer found himself going backwards, as Labour sank gently in the opinion polls. All rights reserved. Opinion comes closest regarding having a lot of . The DUP was not allowed to hijack the launch and mobilise the European Research Group. Starmers hope was that the public would eventually tire of the glaring cronyism and corruption of a ruling party that has been 12 years in power. The opinion polls have turned in the Labour leader's favour - vindicating his 'strategic patience'. He could hardly have been in a weaker position than he was when he took over as Tory leader in October. Commenting on the poll, a nationally representative survey of British adults by British Polling Council (BPC) member People Polling, Professor Matt Goodwin said: Both these numbers and the polls more broadly suggest that the Conservative Partys limited recovery that has been visible in the polls in recent weeks may have stalled. Too soon for that. Starmers office had not responded before publication of this article to a request for comment from Middle East Eye. In my dealings with Gray when I was political secretary, I found her . A backlash is coming, Labour leader Keir Starmer addresses the annual Labour Party conference in Brighton, England, on 9 September 2021 (AFP), How top Labour officials plotted to bring down Jeremy Corbyn, Forde Inquiry exposes Labour's biggest problem: Keir Starmer, Jonathan Cook is the author of three books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. Starmer has experience that Blair didn't. Posts; Latest Activity; Photos . If you do not have an account you can register here. The Lib Dems are on 13% with the Greens on 6%. The MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark was hit with a five-day suspension today ( Friday, March 3 ), for his drunken, expletive-laden rants in Stranger's Bar last year . Polling for Ipsos MORI showed the Tories taking the lead in front of Labour again amid a vaccine bou It is something Blair spoke about a lot, not having the first idea what he was doing when he got through the door. He has become the voice of a new populist grassroots politics filling the void on the left created by Starmers all-too visible absence. Nicola Sturgeons departure has disarmed the Scottish separatist threat for a while, though the union remains fragile in the longer term. Sunaks handling of the NI protocol suggests a leader and a Tory party with more left in the tank than some think. It is a dramatic capitulation for a party in opposition that grew out of the activities of the trade union movement and still affirms on its website that its affiliation with leading unions is what makes [Labour] unique. 27 per cent of people are satisfied with how he is performing in his job while 34 per cent are dissatisfied, for a net approval rating of -6 (accounting for rounding). While Starmer is seen as more austere, he has embraced the former PMs party financing strategy. War in Ukraine overturned the political landscape. Search. LONDON Keir Starmer is reportedly considering hiring Sue Gray, the senior civil servant who investigated pandemic rule-busting parties in Boris Johnson's government, as his chief of staff. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Nobody wants to see industrial action that is disruptive.. Voters, it seems, finally agree. It is, admittedly, early days for such speculation. The polling companies listed are members of the British Polling Council (BPC) and abide by its disclosure rules. How the PM could block sleaze watchdog's advice on Gray hire and if Labour will ignore him, Opinion | Boris Johnsons 'jobs for Tory cronies' legacy is still alive and kicking, Tory MPs furious at Starmer hiring Sue Gray as Rees-Mogg calls her report 'left-wing stitch-up', publics view of the the Labour leader himself appears to be becoming more negative, Keir Starmer will have been hoping for a polling bounce following his big announcement on freezing energy bills, 'How bad are the pics? Middle East Eye. His decision to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos last month and his comments that he prefers the gathering to Westminster also reveal how comfortable Starmer is schmoozing with the global elite. Starmer has differentiated Labour simply by eschewing the more indefensible forms of predatory capitalism the current Conservative leadership embraces. He has not dared to seize the initiative as workers pay falls well behind rocketing inflation. The National Anthem will be sung at the start of the Labour Party conference next weekend, for the first time in recent memory (h/t @BBCBenWright), Saying Im not ideological, Starmer told BBC Breakfast over the summer: Weve reversed those 2019 manifesto positions because we needed to show the country that were credible, were responsible on the economy.. Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is known across the City of London as an affable and engaging MP with a real understanding of financial services. But he has gone further, accepting neoliberal orthodoxy that concessions to workers hinder business and damage economic activity. Left-wing party members who joined during Corbyns tenure have been fleeing in droves, depriving Labour of desperately needed income to fight the next general election. Overall, more than half the country, 54%, say they do not know who to back on the economy or would rather not say.