Capping off UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s disastrous first full year in office, a poll from YouGov found that just over one in ten voters approve of his government’s performance.
In its final approval survey for the year, YouGov found that only 12 per cent of the British voting public have a favourable opinion of the left-wing Labour Party government.
In comparison, 68 per cent of voters disapprove of the government’s performance, while 20 per cent have no opinion.
For context, the failed Tory government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also had a 12 per cent approval rating immediately before it was resoundingly rejected in the 2024 general election, which saw Starmer and Labour sweep to power with a strong majority in the House of Commons.
Since the start of the year, the Labour Party’s support has dropped 8 points in the polls to a paltry 18 per cent, according to YouGov’s tracker.
While much of the support has been siphoned off to the resurgent Green Party of hard-left leader Zach Polanski, the clear winner of the year has been Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which has seen its support increase from 25 to 28 per cent.
This means that Reform now holds a 10 per cent advantage over the governing Labour Party. The party has also overtaken Labour in paid membership, making it the largest in the country.
The government has struggled primarily with the immigration crisis, with small boat illegal crossings of the English Channel surging to near record highs, with over 41,000 being brought ashore this year.
The surge in arrivals, in conjunction with the large asylum backlog, has led the government to continue expanding the use of hotels and other private accommodations across the country.
This sparked a wave of protests starting in the summer as enraged locals took to the streets in the wake of multiple high-profile sexual assaults committed at the hands of illegal migrants being housed at taxpayer expense.
The left-wing Labour government has also struggled with the economy, with 71 per cent of voters believing that the nation’s financial position has declined over the past year. A further 40 per cent said that they expect their own personal financial situation to continue to decline next year.
Rather than focusing on economic growth, as the party had campaigned on, Starmer’s government chose to double down on the high-tax agenda pursued by the so-called Conservative governments that preceded his.
Starmer’s finance chief, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, has faced accusations of deceiving the public by using a supposed “black hole” in the federal budget to justify further tax hikes last month, despite having been told by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) that such a gap did not exist. Nevertheless, she pushed forward with tax increases while increasing funding for welfare and the asylum system.
Unsurprisingly, the chaotic mismanagement of the nation’s finances has seen confidence decline in Labour and an increase in trust for Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who is now trusted by more people than trust Prime Minsiter Starmer to handle the economy.
Mr Farage has predicted that public dissatisfaction will force Starmer to call for an early election. The plurality of the public also believes that Starmer is likely on his way out, with 50 per cent of voters saying that he will likely be kicked out of the year.
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