Only 21% had a favourable opinion of Sunak, according to a YouGov poll conducted just before he won the crucial vote on the Rwanda bill…reports Asian Lite News
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak net favourability rating slipped to ‘worst ever’ amid the controversial Rwanda policy row, with a new poll showing 70 per cent of people holding an unfavourable view of the leader.
Only 21 per cent had a favourable opinion of him, according to a YouGov poll conducted just before Sunak won the crucial vote on the Rwanda bill.
“This gives the Prime Minister his lowest ever net favourability score of -49 — a 10 point drop from late November,” the poll said, adding that the present Prime Minister is now as unpopular as Boris Johnson in his final days in office.
At the time of Johnson’s resignation, YouGov recorded a low of -53 for the former Prime Minister, although still not as bad as Liz Truss’s -70.
Similarly, 2019 Conservative voters revealed a more negative view of the leader of the party they backed four years ago, in another new low for the Prime Minister.
A recorded 56 per cent expressed a negative opinion, while 40 per cent shared a positive view with pollsters. Meanwhile, Sunak got some respite on Tuesday as the House of Commons voted 313-269 to approve the government’s Rwanda bill in principle, sending it on for further scrutiny.
The Rwanda plan, agreed by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2022, seeks to deter migrants from making the perilous journey of about 32 km across the Channel in small boats or inflatable dinghies.
Under the plan, anyone who arrived in Britain illegally after January 1, 2022, faced being sent to Rwanda, some 6,400 km away. The first deportation flight in June 2022 was blocked by a last-minute injunction from the European Court of Human Rights.
The plan is of utmost importance to Sunak as he made “stopping the boats” one of his top five priorities after he became the Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, Sunak has denied acting “tetchy” when he does not get his way, as it was revealed the prime minister is now as unpopular as Boris Johnson was when he resigned.
The prime minister said there was “nothing tetchy” about him, after facing criticism for his reaction to the Greek prime minister calling for the return of the Elgin Marbles.
In an interview with The Spectator, Sunak said: “I don’t understand that”.
He said: “There’s nothing tetchy. But I am passionate. When things are not working the way I want them to work, of course I’m going to be frustrated.”
Sunak, who insisted he was enjoying being prime minister, said he “knew what it was going to be” like taking on the top job.
At prime minister’s questions, Labour MP Chris Bryant asked Sunak: “What’s worse, losing your WhatsApp messages as tech bro, losing £11.8bn to fraud as chancellor, presiding over the biggest fall in living standards in history, or desperately clinging on to power when you’ve become even more unpopular than Boris Johnson?”
The prime minister replied: “What matters to me is delivering for the British people and that’s exactly what we are doing.”
Sunak told the Covid inquiry on Monday he did not have any of his WhatsApp messages from the pandemic as he had frequently changed phones and not backed them up.
Research from the House of Commons in 2022 showed billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money was lost to fraud and error in the government’s support for businesses during Covid.
Following the government’s Autumn Statement last month, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said living standards are on course to fall to the lowest level since records began in the 1950s.
Meanwhile, Labour Leader Keir Starmer accused Sunak of kicking the can down the road after his Rwanda bill passed 313 to 269, with a majority of 44 votes, on Tuesday night in its first parliamentary stage.
But with around 38 Conservative MPs recorded as not taking part in the vote, it is widely expected that the controversial Rwanda bill aimed at deporting illegal migrants to the east African nation while asylum claims are processed will reignite the deep Tory divisions over the issue as it progresses through further stages in the New Year.
He can spin it all he likes but the whole country can see that yet again the Tory party is in meltdown and everyone else is paying the price. He has kicked the can down the road but in the last week his MPs have said of him he is not capable enough, he is inexperienced, he is arrogant, a really bad politician, said Starmer.
Faced with one of his toughest challenges since taking charge as Prime Minister last year, Sunak had launched a wide-ranging charm offensive at 10 Downing Street in a bid to win over MPs from within his Conservative Party threatening to rebel against the Rwanda bill.
ALSO READ-Sunak sees off revolt to win vote on Rwanda migrant plan
