Rishi Sunak’s hopes of re-election look to be in dire straits after new polling shows he has shed half of 2019 Conservative voters.
The prime minister set out five priorities at the start of the year, including halving inflation, growing the economy, cutting NHS waiting lists, reducing the national debt and stopping small boat crossings.
But almost halfway through the year, a poll by Ipsos UK found more than 50 per cent of people think the Government is doing a bad job on almost all those priorities.
In worse news for the Government, the poll found that the public tended to think Sunak was doing a worse job on the areas that were most important to them.
The public’s top priority, according to the poll, was easing the cost of living, with 59 per cent listing it as important, followed by ensuring people can get NHS treatment more quickly on 54 per cent and reducing NHS waiting lists on 51 per cent.
But 60 per cent said the Government was doing a bad job on easing the cost of living, with only 18 per cent saying it was doing a good job, and 62 per cent thought it was not delivering on reducing NHS waiting times.
In more bad news for Sunak, a separate poll by BMG Research for the i newspaper showed just over half, or 52 per cent, of those who voted Conservative in 2019 say they would do so again, suggesting the swathe of “Red Wall” seats won by Mr Johnson would fall back into Labour hands.
The PM’s personal approval rating among voters has also fallen dramatically since the Conservatives’ disastrous local election results.
In figures which will cause alarm in Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s net satisfaction score for May is -21 per cent, down from -14 per cent in April.
This is Sunak’s second-lowest approval rating since becoming Prime Minister last October, with only one worse figure of -23 per cent in January.
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