Keir Starmer was never so popular with the public as in the early months of 2020, when he had just become Labour leader and not many people knew about him. His popularity only saw a slight surge – from 29 per cent favourable to 38 per cent – when the Conservatives committed public opinion suicide by elevating Liz Truss. But Starmer continued to experience more people liking him than disliking him up to the general election in 2024.
Starmer was at best inoffensive. He wasn’t Jeremy Corbyn, who forced many voters out against Labour. The 2024 landslide was built off voters in Tory areas staying home.
Today, however, the share of Britons who like him is only a few points above Liz Truss’s after crashing the economy. At day 670 of governing the country, Starmer stands as the least liked of all recent premiers to have made it this far: At the same distance into their respective premierships, it is five points below Rishi Sunak, 20 below Boris Johnson, 15 below Theresa May, 21 below David Cameron, and even nine points below Gordon Brown.
There will be kind tributes in coming days, but the truth is that barely anyone representative of the public has a nice word to say about Starmer. As of June, only 15 per cent of voters think he can speak for the nation. For every voter who agrees he is a strong leader, there is one who doesn’t know and almost four who disagree.
That is the public’s verdict on six years of Starmer. For the history of how his time in Downing Street fell apart, read Ethan Croft’s Timeline: How Starmer lost control.
[Further reading: Thank you, Keir Starmer, next]
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