Reform UK leader and Brexit pioneer Nigel Farage has better recognition than any other party leader, some of which are so obscure they aren’t even known by their own supporters.
An overwhelming majority of 89 per cent of Britons correctly identify Nigel Farage by name when shown a photograph of him, research by pollster YouGov states. This is fractionally better recognition than the actual Prime Minister of the country, Sir Keir Starmer, who can be named correctly by 87 per cent.
Amusingly, YouGov also recorded how many people did not instinctively try to name the politician when asked but instead reacted to the image with “focused abuse”. That was the case for both Starmer and Farage in two per cent of cases each.
All other party leaders presented in the poll were met with this abuse in zero per cent of cases, it was stated, but it appears this may have been because nobody knew who they were. For instance, just 37 per cent of Britons could name Ed Davey correctly.
For those who don’t know, he’s the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the traditional third party of British politics, and has been for some five years now.
While Davey doesn’t enjoy particularly good brand recognition among the broader public, Liberal Democrat voters themselves are known to be relatively loyal and more highly educated than the average Briton, so he might expect better results from his own supporters. Yet despite Davey having been in the job longer than any other major party leader, a whole third of his own voters didn’t recognise him.
This pales in comparison to the Green Party, however. A small but persistent force in British politics, very nearly nobody seems to know who the party’s leaders are — they have two of them for gender balance reasons, presumably — even among the party faithful.
Just nine per cent of Britons could name Carla Denyer from a photograph and a dismal two per cent could name co-leader Adrian Ramsey. Among Green voters, Ramsey’s recognition figure only climbed to nine per cent.
Polling has not been friendly to the British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of late. In addition to specific polling on issues, finding the public is not satisfied on his performance in key issues like border control or the economy, they have also tended to be rather unflattering about him personally.
Awkwardly for the left-wing politician who was once so very critical of him, earlier this month it was stated that U.S. President Donald Trump now polls more positively in the UK than Starmer does. Most popular of all, per that poll, was Brexit leader Nigel Farage.
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