Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak may have to get used to negative poll numbers

Neither have great personal approval ratings – but pressure would be higher without events in Ukraine leading the global diplomatic agenda, argues Keiran Pedley

Boris Johnson may be quietly rather pleased that ‘events’ have come to his rescue (UK Parliament/Reuters)

The last few months are an excellent example of how difficult it is to have neatly packaged ideas about politicians and their policies.

First, Boris Johnson was buffeted by stories about Downing Street parties, which damaged both his and the Conservative Party’s poll ratings. Then came Ukraine, which Britons think Johnson has done a fairly good job of handling. And running alongside the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been a cost of living crisis that has prompted Rishi Sunak’s favourability to plummet into the negative, leaving him on a net rating of -18 (44 per cent unfavourable compared with just 26 per cent favourable). The chancellor has also had plenty of time in the headlines this week.

As a social research company, we ask people about these things separately, but what’s particularly interesting is tracking people’s views over time on things like favourability and voting intention. Because those three issues (and more besides) all overlap, their confluence is what shapes people’s opinions as much as they do individually.