Public more favourable towards Rishi Sunak than Johnson or Starmer

Ipsos's July Political Pulse shows Chancellor Rishi Sunak has higher favourability ratings than both Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer.

The author(s)
  • Keiran Pedley Public Affairs
  • Gideon Skinner Public Affairs
  • Cameron Garrett Public Affairs
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The latest Ipsos Political Pulse shows the British public continue to be more favourable towards Chancellor Rishi Sunak than they are towards Prime Minister Boris Johnson or Labour leader Keir Starmer.

Leaders favourability

  • 48% are favourable towards Sunak and 22% unfavourable. These numbers have not changed much since we first asked the question in May where 47% were favourable and 18% unfavourable.
  • Boris Johnson continues to divide opinion with roughly as many favourable towards the Prime Minister (41%) as unfavourable (42%). In June 39% were favourable and 43% unfavourable.
  • Conservative voters are just as favourable towards Johnson (78%) as they are Sunak (78%).
  • Meanwhile, among the general public, 33% are favourable towards Labour leader Keir Starmer and 29% are unfavourable. Starmer’s favourable ratings have fallen slightly (3 points) since last month and his unfavourable ratings have increased 3 points – which may reflect the first signs of his honeymoon period with voters coming to an end. However, 31% continue to be neutral towards the Labour leader (the same as last month) whilst 6% don’t know.
  • 6 in 10 (60%) Labour voters have a favourable opinion of Starmer with 1 in 10 (11%) unfavourable. 1 in 4 (27%) are neutral and 2% don’t know.

In terms of the parties themselves, there is little difference in public perceptions of the Conservative and Labour parties in terms of favourability – although the Conservative net favourability score of -5 is slightly better than Labour’s -11.

Party favourability

  • 35% are favourable towards the Conservative Party (up 2 points from June) and 40% are unfavourable (down 4 points).
  • For Labour, 31% are favourable (no change) and 42% are unfavourable (up 3 points).
  • The Lib Dems continue to struggle with just 14% favourable towards the party (down 2 points) and 43% unfavourable (up 2 points).

Other findings in the poll show 46% of GB adults think things in Great Britain are heading in the wrong direction and 30% say things are heading in the right direction. Public opinion has steadily moved in a negative direction since mid-April when 40% thought things were headed in the right direction and 35% thought things were headed in the wrong direction (although this was the only time this year that more thought things in Britain were headed in the right rather than wrong direction).

Ipsos Research Director Keiran Pedley said of the findings:

Rishi Sunak continues to enjoy a positive reputation with the British public which may not be surprising considering our research shows that they think he has done a very good job handling the coronavirus pandemic. It will be interesting to see if these numbers hold through challenging times ahead, where increasing numbers of the British public think things are headed in the ‘wrong direction’.

Technical note

Ipsos interviewed a representative sample of 1,118 British adults aged 18+. Interviews were conducted online from 10th - 13th July 2020. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.
The author(s)
  • Keiran Pedley Public Affairs
  • Gideon Skinner Public Affairs
  • Cameron Garrett Public Affairs

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