London: Rishi Sunak’s personal ratings have slipped to the lowest of his premiership in terms of being the best person to lead the UK, as he tries to hold a fractured Conservative Party together, a media report said.
Sunak is 10 points being Labour’s Keir Starmer in terms of who is seen as the better leader, after a brutal week in Westminster, Daily Mail reported.
He was backed by just 33 percent of those polled by Redfield and Wilton Strategies after Boris Johnson announced he was quitting Parliament and his controversial resignation honours list was published, Daily Mail reported.
Keir was on 43 percent, and his personal approval rating has also risen by 4 percent ahead of three key by-elections Labour needs to win to show they are on course for power at the next general election.
However, the battle for Boris Johnson’s former Uxbridge and South Ruislip could be tighter than expected.
While Boris’ 2019 majority of 7,210 should be well within the sights of candidate Danny Beales, the imminent expansion of Labour mayor Sadiq Khan’s Ulez vehicle tax scheme to the outer London borough could yet cause a backlash.
However, there is the additional complicating factor of an insurgent campaign of rightwing Reclaim party leader Laurence Fox, which could claim some Tory votes.
Constituency-level polling by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft earlier this month found voters were quite evenly divided as to whether they would prefer a Conservative government with Rishi Sunak as prime minister (29 percent) or a Labour government led by Sir Keir (27 percent) – while 30 percent wanted neither, Daily Mail reported.
The Tory civil war that has helped the party plummet int he polls is unlikely to die down any time soon.
