'More disgust at Tories' Starmer expected to win despite low ratings

Keir Starmer goes into the general election widely expected to emerge as prime minister, despite being only roughly as personally popular as Ed Miliband was at the time of the 2015 election.

- Kiran Stacey

Headline polls suggest Labour will win a convincing majority in July , with the party 20 points ahead , potentially enough for a landslide victory. But underlying data suggests Starmer and his party are no more popular or trusted than they were heading into 2015, when the Conservatives won a majority.

A recent Guardian analysis of data from the polling company Ipsos shows fewer voters think Labour is fit to govern than in 2014, fewer think it has a good team of leaders and fewer think it understands the UK’s problems.

Ben Page, the chief executive of Ipsos , said: “Starmer’s personal ratings are the lowest Ipsos has ever seen for an opposition leader who is so far ahead in the overall voting intention. It is more disgust at the Tories than delight at what Labour offers that is driving politics.”

Since taking over as party leader in 2020, Starmer has overhauled Labour’s policies, its personnel and transformed its poll rating.

Having initially been elected on a platform of continuing the legacy of his predecessor , Jeremy Corbyn, Starmer soon began overturning much of the party’s 2019 manifesto.