Following party conference season, the prime minister’s approval rating remains in the doldrums at -29% (24% approve, 52% disapprove), according to Opinium’s latest polling.
This is an uptick of +1 point since last week, but still contrasts heavily to his first approval rating as prime minister: +19%.
Rishi Sunak’s ratings trail downwards, as he also sits at -29%, compared to -25% last week (18% approve and 47% disapprove).
However, Starmer still leads Sunak as best prime minister, although the gap has narrowed from 10 points to 6 points (25%, -3 for Starmer vs 19%, +1 for Sunak). Almost half (45%) think neither would be the best prime minister.
Still all to play for in the Conservative leadership race
It’s still all to play for in the Conservative leadership race, however James Cleverly has pulled ahead compared to last week, with 11% of the public believing he should be the next Conservative leader. He also leads with 2024 Conservative voters (18%) and 2019 Conservative voters (15%).
He is also viewed as the most acceptable leader, with half (49%) of 2019 Conservative voters saying James Cleverley would be an acceptable leader of the Party vs 41% for Robert Jenrick, 40% for Tom Tugendhat and 37% for Kemi Badenoch.
Kemi Badenoch comes out as the least acceptable, with a quarter (28%) of 2019 Conservatives revealing they would find her to be an unacceptable leader. This was lower for Tom Tugendhat and Robert Jenrick (19% each). Last week, nearly a quarter (24%) of 2019 Conservatives found James Cleverly unacceptable as leader, while this week only 19% felt this way.
British voters continue to support a ceasefire in Gaza
Two thirds (66%, +3) of British adults approve of an immediate ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Palestine compared to 7% (-1) who disapprove of this idea.
Two fifths (41%, +2) of British adults say in light of Iran launching a large-scale missile attack on Israel on Tuesday night, the UK should refuse to support the operations of either side. Just over 1 in 5 (22%, -2) believe the UK should support Israeli against Iran and those who believe the UK should support Iran against Israel (10%, +2) also remains stable.
Adam Drummond, head of political and social research at Opinium said, “Politics remains sort of on hold until the Budget on 30 October.
“Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves’ ratings are largely unchanged from last week and voters are more concerned about the burgeoning conflict in the Middle East than anything the parties are saying.
“To nobody’s surprise, voters are not paying a great deal of attention to the Conservative leadership contest, and it is notable that, as unpopular as the Labour government already is, voters prefer them over the Tories on almost all issues with the two parties tied on the economy.”
