Poll says Keir Starmer worse choice for PM than Boris Johnson

[dutchman]

Labour ahead of Tories by two points, but Labour’s leader failing to make a personal breakthrough



Boris Johnson makes a better prime minister than Keir Starmer would despite Partygate, the cost of living crisis and the confidence vote in Johnson held by his MPs, according to the latest Observer poll.

The Opinium figures, which will raise further concerns within Labour over the party leader’s performance, shows that the prime minister has a two-point lead over his opponent. It also reveals that Starmer’s party holds a narrow two-point lead, compared with a three-point lead in the last poll a fortnight ago. Labour are on 36% of the vote, with the Tories up one point on 34%. The Lib Dems are on 13% with the Greens on 6%.

Johnson’s poor approval ratings have improved slightly at -27, compared with -30 two weeks ago. Starmer holds an approval rating of -6, unchanged from two weeks ago.

While 28% think Johnson would make the best prime minister, 26% opted for Starmer.

It comes with Labour MPs still feeling gloomy over Starmer’s performance at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday.

Hopes for that encounter had been high following the confidence vote held by Tory MPs over Johnson’s leadership, a move that left the prime minister deeply wounded with 148 voting against him.

However, many within Labour’s ranks found Starmer’s performance to be flat and criticised his line of questioning. Even some Tory rebels were baffled by Starmer’s performance, saying it had helped Johnson regain some stability after the confidence vote. Angela Rayner, the Labour deputy leader, also suggested that Starmer looks too much like a lawyer in public appearances and should “put some more welly” into his speeches.

Another shadow cabinet minister agreed. “He is very much, ‘here is the problem and this is the solution’. But there’s no sense of what the wider project is.”

[dutchman]

A 2% lead this far away from a general election is nothing.

Labour would need to be twenty points ahead at this stage to stand any chance of forming a government.

[rebbonk]

Labour needs to look at who it wants to represent.

The fact that people think Stammer [sic] would be worse than Johnson speaks volumes about the state of UK politics.