This is who would be the UK’s best Prime Minister right now – according to Brits
Polling group YouGov has published its latest Prime Minister tracker, showing Prime Minister Keir Starmer no longer has the edge when it comes to leading the country.
Despite the continued slide in both Labour and Keir Starmer’s popularity, one of the few glimmers of hope for Downing Street has previously been Starmer’s ability to lead his opponents on the question of who would make the best prime minister.
However, the latest data shows Britons are now tied 28% to 28% on whether Starmer or Badenoch would make the better Prime Minister.
Starmer does retain the seven-point lead over Nigel Farage he held last August, with 36% of Britons believing Starmer makes the better prime minister of the two, relative to 29% who believe the Reform UK leader would do a better job.
Badenoch’s improvement is not limited to her head-to-head with Starmer. Britons now favour Badenoch to be prime minister over Farage by 31% to 21%, having previously been divided 21% to 23% six months ago, while being roughly split 27% to 25% between her and Davey, overturning the Lib Dem leader’s previous eight point lead.
Ed Davey now also leads Starmer on the best PM question, by 23% to 19%, having been divided 20% to 20% on the question in August, and favouring Starmer by eight points last February.
Davey also continues to be a more popular choice than Farage, with the public favouring him for Downing Street to the Reform UK leader by 33% to 27%.
“The improvement in Kemi Badenoch’s figures across these head-to-heads is significant not just because of the scale, but because it manifests itself in different ways depending on who she is facing off with,” YouGov said.
“Conservative voters have become more enthusiastic for their party’s leader across the board. Those who backed the party in 2024 now favour Badenoch over Farage by a 20 point margin of 47% to 27%, a marked shift since last August, when just 29% of her own party’s voters preferred her to the Reform UK leader, with 36% instead favouring Farage.
“And against Keir Starmer, 68% of 2024 Conservative voters now back the Tory leader, up 13 points since last summer.”
Polanski on the rise
Green’s leader Zack Polanski has also made significant breakthroughs compared to his predecessors, with more Britons now having a favourable opinion of him than Keir Starmer.
The public back Kemi Badenoch to be the better prime minister over the Green leader by 28% to 22%, and favour Ed Davey by 20% to 15%. However, the public are roughly split on the questions of Polanski versus Farage (28% to 27%) and Polanski versus Starmer (21% to 19%).
Across the ten head-to-heads between the five main party leaders, Ed Davey leads on three of them, Kemi Badenoch on two, Keir Starmer on one, with the other four being tied within the margin of error.
