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More than half of people believe Britain is “moving in the wrong direction”, according to a new poll which shows a decline in the popularity of Sir Keir Starmer and his cabinet.
The Ipsos poll, conducted from 9 to 12 August, shows that people still prefer Labour leaders to Conservatives, but criticism of the new government has increased.
52 percent of adults surveyed said Britain was moving in the wrong direction, while 22 percent said things were going in the right direction.
Sir Keir remains the most popular politician on most issues: 38 percent of respondents have a positive opinion of him, but 38 percent have a negative one.
However, this is a decline from his ratings immediately after the election. His net popularity rating has now dropped from plus 7 to 0.
Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak has a net score of minus 10.
The popularity of Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has also declined slightly. 33 percent of respondents said they were positive, while 36 percent said they were against her.
This was also the case with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Chancellor Rachel Reeves, with 35 percent of people having an unfavourable opinion of Ms Reeves and 33 percent of Ms Cooper.
Gideon Skinner, senior director of UK politics at Ipsos, said Labour and Sir Keir “are still experiencing a moderate honeymoon phase”.
He said: “The public are slightly more positive about them than they were before the election, they are more popular than their main opponents and their approval ratings are higher than those of Boris Johnson and the Conservatives two months after their victory in 2019 and higher than they were two months after Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister.
“But Labour’s approval ratings are not impregnable (Boris Johnson, for example, benefited from a larger halo effect at the start of the Covid pandemic).
“There are signs that public criticism of Labour, the Prime Minister and other key Cabinet ministers is increasing slightly this month. But just as important for their longer-term prospects is the level of pessimism about the state of the country.
“While this is not as bad as under the Conservatives, half of Britons still believe things are going in the wrong direction. Once the honeymoon is over, it will be crucial to meet the public’s desire for improvement.”
On the opposition benches, the Liberal Democrats and their party leader Sir Ed Davey were condemned to loss of reputation.
Some 22 percent said they had a positive attitude towards Sir Ed, compared with 29 percent in the week after the election. Thirty-one percent said they had an negative attitude towards him, compared with 26 percent in July.
Likewise, 24 percent expressed positive views towards the Liberal Democrats and 34 percent expressed negative views.
Ratings for Nigel Farage remain broadly at July levels, while Reform UK has seen a slight decline. Some 54 percent said they were unfavourable towards Mr Farage, and 54 percent were unfavourable towards Reform.
Ipsos surveyed a representative sample of 1,148 adults aged 18 and over across the UK between August 9 and 12.
The data are weighted to match the profile of the population. All surveys have a wide range of potential sources of error.
