Boris Johnson’s approval rating slips to lowest level since he became PM
7 August 2021, 20:42
Almost half of voters do not approve of the job Boris Johnson is doing as Prime Minister, an opinion poll has indicated.
The Prime Minister's net approval rating has fallen to -16%, the lowest recorded by pollster Opinium in the 53 times it has asked the question.
His rating is down from the -13 he recorded two weeks ago and -8 a fortnight before that. It is even lower than the -15 he recorded back in January, when Britain was in the grip of a Covid peak, lockdown measures were in place and the NHS was under severe pressure.
Some 34% of those surveyed between August 5 and 6 approved of the job the Prime Minister is doing, while 49% disapproved - up two percentage points in a fortnight.
The decline in Mr Johnson's personal rating came despite an increase in support for the government's handling of the pandemic, from a net -16% a fortnight ago to -9%.
The Tory poll lead remains relatively stable, dropping by one point over the past fortnight to 42% with Labour unchanged on 35%.
The research was carried out in an online survery by Opium of 2,000 UK adults from August 5-6.
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Adam Drummond, Opinium's head of political polling, said: "It's only after rounding, but our latest poll shows Boris Johnson with his lowest approval rating of any of the 53 times we have asked the question since he became Prime Minister.
"While the so-called 'vaccine bounce' he has been enjoying in recent months may be over, the Conservatives still enjoy a comfortable seven-point lead in the polls - partly off the back of Starmer's similarly poor ratings.
"But even as his ratings do drop, the Prime Minister should never be written off. He has bounced back from poor polling numbers before, and he may be able to do so again."
Sir Keir Starmer will take little comfort from the poll, with the Labour leader's net approval rating also dropping from -6% to -11%, its joint lowest in the Opinium series.
