More than half think the Conservative Party are having a bad general election campaign

• Just 16% say Conservatives having a good campaign
• In contrast, 32% say Reform UK having a good campaign and 38% say the same about Labour. 

Ipsos’ latest General Election campaign tracker finds that a majority (54%) now think the Conservative Party have had a bad campaign. This is up 6 from last week (48%), and up 13 from the first week of the campaign. 45% of 2019 Conservative voters think that the Conservative party has had a bad campaign so far.

By contrast, twice as many think that Reform UK have had a good campaign since the General Election was announced (32%), compared to the Conservative Party (16%). 32% is the highest proportion saying Reform UK have had a good campaign, and is twice what it during the first week of the campaign (16%). The public continue to think that Labour have had the best campaign since the General Election was announced with 38% saying they have had a good campaign (24% bad campaign).

Who would make the better Prime Minister?

The public were asked to consider who would make the better Prime Minister out of Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage: 

• When asked to compare Sunak and Farage, 21% think Sunak would make the better Prime Minister compared to 22% who say Farage. 
• Likewise, among 2019 Conservative voters, 34% think Sunak would make the better Prime Minister, compared to 35% who favoured Farage. 

However when asked to compare whether Keir Starmer would be a better Prime Minister than Sunak and Farage, the Labour leader holds large leads over both.

• The public are twice as likely to think Starmer (34%) would make a better Prime Minister than Sunak (17%).
• Likewise when compared to Farage, 40% think Starmer would make the better Prime Minister (Farage 22%).

Favourability trackers

Opinion towards the party leaders and political parties continues to be relatively unchanged since the start of the campaign. 

• One in five (20%) are favourable towards Rishi Sunak (-3ppts since last week), compared to almost three in five (59%) who are unfavourable (+2ppts). This is Sunak’s worst net favourability rating (-39) in our series. 22% said they were favourable towards the Conservative Party (N/C) compared to 56% who said they were unfavourable (-1ppt).
• A third (34%) remain favourable towards Keir Starmer (+1ppt), whilst a 40% are unfavourable (-2ppts). 39% say they are favourable towards the Labour Party (+2ppts), compared to 38% who are unfavourable (N/C).
• Elsewhere almost half (49%) have an unfavourable opinion towards Nigel Farage (-2ppts), compared to a quarter (26%) who have a favourable opinion (+5 ppts). A quarter are favourable towards Reform UK (26%), compared to 43% who are unfavourable. 
• 21% have a favourable opinion towards Ed Davey (33% unfavourable), and 24% say they are favourable towards the Liberal Democrats (36% unfavourable).

Elsewhere in the survey, the public were asked which politicians have been the best and worst campaigners so far. 22% think Starmer has been the best campaigner, followed by Farage on 19%. Over a third (36%) think Rishi Sunak has been the worst campaigner so far.

Most important issue

Healthcare and the NHS continue to be the main issue that the public say will be very important in deciding their vote, with 63% say it is very important to them (N/C). This is followed by inflation and the cost of living being selected by over half (54%, +1ppt).
Immigration continues to be the most important issue for 2019 Conservatives (69%, -2ppts), whilst health is most important to 2019 Labour voters (66%, -9ppts).

Alongside this, 57% think the country is heading in the wrong direction (-3ppts) compared to 17% who think Britain is heading in the right direction (-3ppts). 

Keiran Pedley, Director of Politics at Ipsos, says of the findings:

The findings in this poll reflect the depth of the challenge facing the Conservatives. Having entered the campaign 20 points behind, the public are increasingly seeing them as having a bad campaign, with Labour and Reform UK increasingly seen as having a good one. Meanwhile, the appeal of Nigel Farage to 2019 Conservative voters is clear here – they are just as likely to prefer him as Prime Minister to current Prime Minister (and Conservative leader) Rishi Sunak.

Technical note

Ipsos interviewed a representative sample of 1,049 adults aged 18+ across Great Britain. Interviews were conducted by telephone between the 14-17 June 2024. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.