Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s net favourability has dropped by 28 points among 2024 Labour voters since his landslide election victory in July, according to new research from Savanta.
Ahead of Starmer’s speech at Labour Party Conference, Savanta’s findings suggest “a nosedive in support“ for the Labour leader since the election, from +71 net favourability among Labour voters from 5-7 July, to +43 now (20-22 September).
Starmer was riding high in 26-28 July with a net favourability of +15 among the wider public – his best ever rating. This has now dropped to -11: a fall of 26 points and his lowest levels since July 2021. It was around this time Starmer reportedly considered resigning following the Hartlepool by-election loss.
There has also been a significant decrease in the level of support for Starmer’s policy programme since the election (5-7 July), with only 28% of the public saying they ‘like both Starmer and his policies’, a 10-point drop (38%) in Savanta’s latest research (20-22 September).
During the same period, there has been an eight-point decrease in the proportion of the public who say they ‘like both Starmer and the Labour Party’, from 37% to 29%.
Chris Hopkins, Political Research Director at Savanta said, “Our findings really do show the challenge that Keir Starmer faces as he stands up to make his first conference speech as Prime Minister.
“While he is still relatively popular among his own voters, he has absolutely seen a nosedive in support since the election, which was less than three months ago.”
The cumulative impacts of the summer unrest, the unpopular winter fuel allowance decision and ongoing questions around donations and hospitality appear to have considerably hurt Starmer and his government’s popularity, when they should still be riding high post-election.
