KEIR Starmer is now viewed as more sleazy than his predecessor Rishi Sunak, according to a fresh poll.
A YouGov poll asking people to compare the two as prime ministers found 35% of people think Starmer is more sleazy, while just 28% found him less sleazy than Sunak.
Overall, the majority of people asked (59%) said the current Labour Government is very or fairly sleazy.
It emerged last month Starmer had received more than £16,000 for work clothing and spectacles for him, and further donations for his wife, from Labour peer Waheed Alli.
Following an intense period of scrutiny, Starmer said he would not accept any further donations for clothing and is repaying more than £6000 worth of gifts and hospitality.
However, he said last week his decision to repay some of the freebies was not an admission he had made a misstep in accepting them, adding that his Cabinet ministers do not need to follow him in paying back their gifts.
Elsewhere in the poll, half (53%) of Britons said they expected Labour to behave well when it came to standards in public office, but this includes 38% who feel they have subsequently behaved poorly.
A further 25% had bad expectations from the outset, which they believe Labour have justified. Only 18% believe the party has behaved well to date.
Three in 10 Labour voters (30%) have already come to see the new Labour Government as sleazy, although they have some way to go to catch up with the six in 10 Conservative voters (59%) who say the same of the Tory governments in power between 2019 and 2024.
Sunak sparked furious backlash during his tenure after betting TalkTV host Piers Morgan £1000 that the UK would deport people to Rwanda before the General Election.
During his time as chancellor under Boris Johnson, he also faced intense scrutiny after it emerged his wife Akshata Murty (above) claimed non-domicile status to pay less tax just two months after he took up the position.
Despite how people believe Starmer himself is more sleazy than Sunak, the YouGov poll showed people still think the previous Conservative government was more sleazy overall.
A quarter of people said the Labour Government were more sleazy than their predecessors, while 33% felt they were less sleazy.
The Prime Minister can at least still claim to be viewed as less sleazy than Johnson, with 45% of people still believing the former Tory leader wins that contest.
