LONDON - Rishi Sunak’s fading hopes of holding on to power have suffered a humiliating new setback after a new poll showed voters see him as a “weak, useless, rich idiot”.
The verdict of Tory voters on the prime minister is almost as withering. Asked to state their “ideal” party leader, Conservative supporters picked Boris Johnson, followed by Margaret Thatcher, who died 11 years ago, and Nigel Farage ahead of Mr Sunak.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer fares slightly better among voters as a whole, seen as “weak and boring”, though also “honest and competent”.
But unlike Mr Sunak, Sir Keir has solid support from his own supporters: the majority of Labour voters regard him as their “ideal” leader - with no appetite for long-gone predecessors like Tony Blair.
The damning portrait of Mr Sunak, whose Tory party languishes behind Labour by 20 per cent in recent polls, emerged in a survey by JL Partners polling company. A total of 2,105 people took part in the survey on 9 and 10 March.
Asked to summarise each leader in a word, the top ten words most commonly chosen by voters as a whole to describe Mr Sunak, in order of popularity, are: “Weak, useless, rich, untrustworthy, incompetent, bad, idiot, rubbish, liar, smarmy”.
Political leaders could usually rely on their own supporters to be more sympathetic towards them, said JL Partners co-founder James Johnson, but not Mr Sunak.
Those who voted Tory in the 2019 election were nearly as insulting, struggling to find a single good thing to say about him.
Mr Johnson said the ‘word cloud’ survey conducted last weekend explained “the serious slide in Rishi Sunak’s ratings” among the electorate since he became prime minister nearly 18 months ago.
“They used to think he was rich but quite competent, they now think he is rich but also weak,” said Mr Johnson. “That is a really devastating place to be if you are a politician.”
Announcing the results of the poll, Mr Johnson told a gathering of leading political pundits at Carlton House Terrace, London, that Sir Keir was in “a much better place” than Mr Sunak with his own respective party faithful.
Among all voters, the top ten words used to describe Sir Keir included “weak, boring and bland”.
But crucially, he is also thought of as “honest and competent”.
And Sir Keir does much better among those who voted Labour in 2019. They see him in a mainly favourable, albeit unexciting light, choosing words like “reliable, fair and intelligent” as well as “dull”.
Mr Johnson said: “People are not champing at the bit for Labour, there is a lot of reluctance about them - but Starmer is winning the battle of the word clouds.”
He said there had also been a major change in the personal quality voters in all parties seek in a prime minister.
Ten years ago they desired someone who, above all else, was competent. Now they viewed being truthful as more important.
And former prime minister Mr Johnson, ousted from power after claims he had lied over the partygate scandal, may be to blame, hinted JL Partners’ Mr Johnson.
“When it comes to what voters actually want from a prime minister, the number one thing is honesty,” he said. “It means not lying - which may be the result of recent political events. It means ‘I don’t care if it is tough news, tell me like it is’.”
