Do we get the quality of politician we deserve?

It’s only prudent for voters to be sceptical of their elected representatives, but the current anti-politics mood could ultimately threaten our democracy, writes John Rentoul

According to the polls, the least unpopular politicians are Keir Starmer and Ben Wallace, while Priti Patel comes out worst (Getty)

Since the meteoric fall in Rishi Sunak’s reputation this year – I’m using the metaphor of a meteor, which falls to Earth, pedantically – we have been in “situation normal” for politics. Every politician of whom people have heard has a negative rating in the opinion polls.

The least unpopular politicians are Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, and Ben Wallace, the defence secretary. They were each given a net score of minus 3 when people were asked by Ipsos whether they “would do a good job or a bad job as prime minister”. The actual prime minister has an approval rating of minus 25.

Sunak is on minus 8, and of a range of other cabinet ministers, Priti Patel comes off worst on minus 34.