After their worst week since Rishi Sunak took over, the Conservatives have recovered some ground to bring Labour’s lead down to 15 points from 19-point last week.
Keir Starmer’s Party currently enjoys 43% (-1) of the vote share, while the Conservatives have 28% (+3).
The Liberal Democrats are on 9% (-1), SNP is on 3% (no change), the Green Party has 6% (-1) and Reform UK has 8% (+1).
Keir Starmer leads when it comes to who the public believe would make the best Prime Minister, with 29% choosing him compared to 23% who would pick Rishi Sunak. Starmer also comes out on top in terms of approval ratings, although his ratings have fallen slightly compared to Opinium’s last poll. Starmer’s rating is -4 (30% approve, 34% disapprove), dropping from -2 last week. Sunak’s approval rating has also dropped, from -21 last week to -26 (24% approve, 50% disapprove).
Sunak sees fall in leadership attributes
Since his first week in office, Sunak has seen a significant drop in how the public view his leadership attributes. The public currently sees his strongest leadership attributes as competency (-8%%), decisiveness (-12%) and likeability (-13%). These have fallen drastically since October, when his competency was ranked as +17%, decisiveness +20%, and likeability +9%.
The public deems that all of his other leadership attributes have worsened in the past nine months – most notably his ability to “get things done.” His score for this is now -22% (26% agree, 47% disagree), drastically different from his score of +14% (38% agree, 24% disagree) when he first started:
Majority support junior doctor and nurses strikes
As the country braces itself for a month of public sector strikes, only nurses and junior doctors have the support of the majority of the public. Three in five (62%) support the nurses’ strikes, while 55% are in favour of strike action from junior doctors. A smaller proportion support the strikes from senior doctors and consultants (41%), with 48% opposing it. The highest degree of opposition to the strikes is for train drivers (56% oppose), university lecturers (54% oppose), tube drivers (54% oppose), and civil servants (52% oppose).
When thinking about the various public sector strikes taking place, just over half (51%) disapprove of how the government has handled them while only 15% approve. However, all sides have some form of net disapproval – 39% disapprove of how the trade unions have responded, and 34% disapprove of how the Labour Party has responded. The picture is similar for leaders: 46% disapprove of how Rishi Sunak has responded to the strikes, 34% disapprove of how Keir Starmer has.
Overall, 46% think the government is mostly responsible for the various strikes that have been taking place, while 38% blame the trade unions most.
James Crouch, Head of Policy & Public Affairs Research at Opinium said, “While our latest poll reveals a slight improvement for the Conservatives, the prime minister suffers from the public perception that he can’t get things done because he’s bogged down by the endless division in his party. Unless the government can regain some momentum, the prospect of successfully defending the upcoming by-elections appears bleak for the Conservatives.”
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