Keir Starmer’s approval ratings overtakes Boris Johnson’s score

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer holds an online phone-in with residents in Glasgow, as part of his 'Call Keir' series of events, from his office in the Houses of Parliament in London, to stay in touch with the public during the Coronavirus lockdown. PA Photo. Picture date: Thursday May 7, 2020. See PA story HEALTH Coronavirus. Photo credit should read: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire - Credit: PA

Ratings for Labour leader Keir Starmer have overtaken Boris Johnson’s net favourablility score for the first time.

A new YouGov poll – conducted over the weekend – found that 40% believe that Starmer is doing a good job, compared to 17% believing he is doing a bad job.

It gives him a net approval rating of 23 points, despite 44% of the public still not yet making their mind up about the new leader of the opposition.

By contrast Johnson’s numbers – while still positive – have started to fall since April.

A total of 57% believe Johnson is doing a good job, but 35% think he is doing badly, giving him a net approval rating of 22 points.


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It means the PM has now fallen one point behind his Labour counterpart.

‘Can’t remember the last time the Labour leader had a higher net approval rating than the Tory leader’, tweeted one in response to the findings.

Last week a separate set of polling found Starmer’s favourability ratings as Labour leader had jumped 50 points compared to where Jeremy Corbyn left off.

Professor John Curtice, a leading polling expert, said Starmer had made a good start as opposition leader.

He said: ‘It’s very early days, and Starmer is not terribly well-known, and one of the basic jobs is to get better known, and obviously the circumstances in which he has got the leadership make that difficult, but the indication so far is that is more likely to be regarded as prime ministerial than was Corbyn, which is not bad for a start.’