Sir Keir Starmer has suffered the biggest fall in approval ratings after winning an election of any modern prime minister, a new poll has shown, ahead of the Budget.
Sir Keir’s approval ratings have plunged to -38, a dramatic fall from the high of plus 11 he secured following Labour’s victory in June with a 174-seat majority, the Telegraph reported.
The finding, by pollsters More in Common, is a blow ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s budget on Wednesday, in which voters are being warned to expect some painful cuts to public spending.
The favorability rating is worse than that recorded by ex-Conservative premier Rishi Sunak, whose ratings have increased to minus 31, up from minus 37 after his election defeat.
It compares poorly to former Labour leader Sir Tony Blair’s ratings at the same point in the electoral cycle, with the three-time Labour prime minister posting approval ratings of plus 46 three months into his term in August 1997. David Cameron and Boris Johnson were also rated far higher at the same stages of their premierships.
Luke Tryl, the executive director of More in Common, told the paper the collapse in Sir Keir’s approval rating was “unprecedented” in the modern era.
He suggested key factors in the collapse of popularity were the Government’s decision to cut universal winter fuel allowance to pensioners and the decision to allow some prisoners to leave jail early.
Sir Keir earlier on Monday warned of “tough” tax rises he vowed to a ‘back to work’ Budget.
He said Ms Reeves’s Autumn Statement would seek to get Britain out of a “pay more get less doom loop”.
He said “no one wants higher taxes, but we have to be realistic” and his government will “ignore the populist chorus of easy answers”.
Among the already-trailed measures are £240million in funding for services to get people back into work and a new £3 bus fare cap on services outside of London, until the end of 2025, up from £2.
Ministers are also rumoured to be planning a hike in National Insurance for employers which could raise as much as £20billion a year.
The pre-announcement of some measures, including a technical change in how the Government measures borrowing, has already caused controversy, with Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle accusing the Chancellor of acting with "supreme discourtesy" by confirming some plans.
The Commons Speaker said it was "totally unacceptable to go around the world telling everybody" about "major" new policy announcements rather than giving the information first to MPs.
Sir Lindsay also questioned whether MPs would need to bother attending the House to hear Ms Reeves deliver her first Budget on Wednesday, given "we'll all have heard it" already.
The intervention came after Ms Reeves last week signalled she would rewrite the way Government debt is measured.
During a round of broadcast interviews while attending the International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington DC, Ms Reeves confirmed a technical change in the way she would measure progress against the target of managing debt.
It is expected Ms Reeves will use the Budget to open the door for the Government to spend billions more on long-term infrastructure, such as replacing dilapidated buildings on the public sector estate.
Sir Lindsay, making a statement, told the Commons: "While this can hardly be described as a leak - the Chancellor herself gave interviews on the record and on camera - the premature disclosure of the contents of the Budget has always been regarded as a supreme discourtesy to the House.
"Indeed, I still regard it as such.
"I am very, very disappointed that the Chancellor expects the House to wait nearly a full week to hear her repeat these announcements in the Budget statement on Wednesday."
