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Louise Thomas
Editor
Keir Starmer’s approval ratings with the general public have collapsed in his first month of power since winning the election.
According to an Opinium poll published over the weekend, the prime minister’s net approval rating has falled by 16 points with the UK gripped by riots and civil unrest with far-right thugs attacking the police, mosques and shops in towns and cities across the UK.
The survey was taken while there was speculation that Sir Keir would go ahead with his family holiday with violence still escalating across the country.
The riots appear to have been triggered by misinformation on social media fuelling far-right groups in the wake of the murder of three young girls in Southport last week.
According to the survey, 35 per cent approve of Sir Keir as prime minister compared to 32 per cent disapprove giving him a net rating of +3 per cent. This is 16 per cent down on the previous poll after the election.
Downing Street yesterday confirmed that Starmer would not be going on holiday this week and he is today going to convene the first meeting of the Civil Contingencies Committee (COBR). But critics argue that he should have provided clarity about his holiday plans earlier and called COBR last week after the first riot took place in Southport before spreading to Hull, Hartlepool, Liverpool, Belfast, Rotherham, London and other towns and cities.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Tory shadow home secretary James Cleverly said: “This is one of those situations where we don’t want to and will not oppose just for the sake of opposing. We want the government to be successful in this endeavor, we want peace to be restored to the streets of this country, we want those who have been perpetrating the violence are brought to justice.”
However, he added: “I am critical that key decisions could and should have been made earlier. I think the fact that most of yesterday we were still not sure whether the prime minister would or would not be going on holiday, I don’t think it sends the right signal.
“I think that COBR should have been convened much earlier than today. There are important operational decisions about the nature of mutual aid, the funding of overtime, the use of powers, the clarity of leadership at a political level to support our police officers on the street across the UK.
“All these things can be done much, much earlier.”
Cleverly disagreed with parliament being recalled.
He said: “I don’t think there is anything that parliament needs to sign off. If the flow of information is fast enough that will give the reassurance that parliament wants.”
However, he also warned that the Home Office should retake powers back from the Department for Culture Media and Sport to tackle disinformation online.
“I fought to have those powers when I was home secretary,” he said.
Speaking later on Today, Labour’s home secretary Yvette Cooper insisted that action had been taken speedily even though courts are yet to process the scores of cases of people arrested at the far-right rallies.
She said: “Most of the problems only happened over the weekend.”
The Opinium survey also had bad news for chancellor Rachel Reeves whose net approval rating has also dropped after she announced she was cutting winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners among other cuts including ending a building program for new hospitals after she said she had discovered a £22 billion black hole in the nation’s finances.
Her net approval fell by a huge 23 points to -11 per cent with 25 per cent approve and 36 per cent disapprove.
