Why is Starmer less popular than Sunak when voters hate the Tories?

How can the joint winners of a political beauty contest be Labour and Sunak? Yet that is what appears to be happening

On the face of it, this is a nonsense (Reuters)

Something strange is going on in British politics. To judge from the latest research, voters plan to give Keir Starmer a landslide election victory – but they think Rishi Sunak makes a better prime minister.

On the face of it, this is a nonsense: how can the joint winners of a political beauty contest be Labour and Sunak? Yet that is what appears to be happening. Opinion polls consistently put Labour as many as 30 points ahead of the Conservatives, on course to send them to parliamentary oblivion. Change the question from Labour vs Conservative to Starmer vs Sunak and you get a different result.

When the choice was put to a series of focus groups by polling company JL Partners, Sunak came out ahead in key aspects. Comments about Starmer from middle-of-the-road voters hardly gave the impression of a rampant leader storming to power. He was described as wooden, a turncoat, whiny, weak and annoying. By the same token, the descriptions of Sunak did not tally with that of a bloodied leader of an army about to be bludgeoned to defeat. He was called an intelligent fella, a nice guy, calm and collected.