Fact-check: Keir Starmer’s approval score is not lowest on record for UK prime ministers

Social media users have falsely claimed Keir Starmer’s net favourability score makes him the least-popular prime minister in British history.

Transcript

00:00Is Keir Starmer's approval rating the lowest in UK history?

00:08Social media users have been claiming that Sir Keir Starmer has the worst approval rating on record

00:14for any UK Prime Minister.

00:16This TikTok post, first spotted by PA Media, shows a screenshot of another post on X

00:22which claims that Keir Starmer's approval rating of minus 38 is a new record in British politics.

00:29We found this claim to be false. Let's get down to the facts.

00:34This line chart in the post can be traced back to fieldwork carried out in early October

00:40by the organisation More In Common.

00:43They asked over 2,000 people whether they thought Starmer was doing a good or bad job as Prime Minister

00:49to calculate his net favourability.

00:52At minus 38, it was the lowest favourability score logged for Starmer by any polling company at that time.

01:00But the claim that it's the worst approval rating for any British Prime Minister is not true.

01:06More In Common put former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's approval rating at minus 41 in July this year.

01:13Polling company YouGov has in the past scored him as low as minus 49.

01:19Other polls have put several other Prime Ministers' favourability rating at an even lower score.

01:24Theresa May fell to minus 49 in 2019 and Boris Johnson hit minus 53 in 2022.

01:33And in October 2022, Liz Truss became the least popular UK Prime Minister in polling history

01:41when YouGov research put her at minus 70.

01:45So while it is true that Starmer's own approval rating has plummeted since he was elected in July,

01:51he is still far from becoming the least popular British Prime Minister in polling history.