Theresa May overtakes Boris Johnson as Britain's most popular politician

Exclusive ComRes poll for The Independent finds that the new Prime Minister's favourability rating has soared

Saturday 13 August 2016 19:44 BST

Theresa May's 'favourable' rating is up 13 points (Getty Images )

Theresa May has overtaken Boris Johnson to become the most popular politician in the country according to an exclusive opinion poll for The Independent. The online poll by ComRes finds that the Prime Minister is viewed favourably by 42 per cent of people and unfavourably by 24 per cent, making her the only MP with a positive rating.

Her “favourable” rating is up 13 points from 29 per cent last November when she was Home Secretary, while Mr Johnson, who has topped the Favourability Index since it started two years ago, has dropped four points. Since he led the Brexit campaign his “unfavourable” rating has also risen by seven points, taking him into negative territory for the first time.

Ms May, who has been Prime Minister for one month and who is now on holiday in Switzerland, is even regarded favourably by 20 per cent of Labour supporters. She appears to be popular in her own right, with more people (45 per cent) rejecting the comparison to Margaret Thatcher than saying there are “real similarities” between them (35 per cent).

One of her possible policy changes is also popular. A majority of the British public (51 per cent) think that grammar schools are “good for social mobility”, while only 27 per cent say they are “bad”. Even if respondents are reminded of the 11-plus exam, whose unpopularity prompted the abolition of most grammar schools in the 1960s and 1970s, 47 per cent say “the Government should allow new grammar schools that select pupils through the 11-plus exam” and only 25 per cent say the Government should keep the ban on new grammar schools.

In the battle for the Labour leadership, more of the general public (37 per cent) say Owen Smith would make a better leader than Jeremy Corbyn (23 per cent), although 40 per cent don’t know. Among people who voted Labour at the last election, however, Mr Corbyn is ahead by 37 per cent to 32 per cent for Mr Smith.

The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address

Show all 6

1/6The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address

The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address

Brexit

The big one. Theresa May has spoken publicly three times since declaring her intent to stand in the Tory Leadership race, and each time she has said, ‘Brexit means Brexit.’ It sounds resolute, but it is helpful to her that Brexit is a made up word with no real meaning. She has said there will be ‘no second referendum’ and no re-entry in to the EU via the back door. But she, like the Leave campaign of which she was not a member, has pointedly not said with any precision what she thinks Brexit means

Reuters

The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address

General election

This is very much one to keep off the to do list. She said last week there would be ‘no general election’ at this time of great instability. But there have already been calls for one from opposition parties. The Fixed Term Parliaments Act of 2010 makes it far more difficult to call a snap general election, a difficulty she will be in no rush to overcome. In the event of a victory for Leadsom, who was not popular with her own parliamentary colleagues, an election might have been required, but May has the overwhelming backing of the parliamentary party

Getty

The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address

HS2

Macbeth has been quoted far too much in recent weeks, but it will be up to May to decide whether, with regard to the new high speed train link between London, Birmingham, the East Midlands and the north, ‘returning were as tedious as go o’er.’ Billions have already been spent. But the £55bn it will cost, at a bare minimum, must now be considered against the grim reality of significantly diminished public finances in the short to medium term at least. It is not scheduled to be completed until 2033, by which point it is not completely unreasonable to imagine a massive, driverless car-led transport revolution having rendered it redundant

EPA

The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address

Heathrow expansion

Or indeed Gatwick expansion. Or Boris Island, though that option is seems as finished as the man himself. The decision on where to expand aviation capacity in the south east has been delayed to the point of becoming a national embarrassment. A final decision was due in autumn. Whatever is decided, there will be vast opprobrium

PA

The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address

Trident renewal

David Cameron indicated two days ago that there will be a Commons vote on renewing Britain’s nuclear deterrent on July 18th, by which point we now know, Ms May will be Prime Minister. The Labour Party is, to put it mildly, divided on the issue. This will be an early opportunity to maximise their embarrassment, and return to Tory business as usual

EPA

The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address

Scottish Independence

Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP are in no doubt that the Brexit vote provides the opportunity for a second independence referendum, in which they can emerge victorious. The Scottish Parliament at Holyrood has the authority to call a second referendum, but Ms May and the British Parliament are by no means automatically compelled to accept the result. She could argue it was settled in 2014

AFP/Getty

Mr Corbyn remains as unpopular among the public as a whole as Nigel Farage, the former leader of Ukip, with a net favourability rating of minus 28 as against minus 27. One explanation for Mr Corbyn’s unpopularity found few takers: only one in eight people (12 per cent) and one in five current Labour supporters (19 per cent) agree with Len McCluskey, the leader of the Unite union, that MI5 is behind some of the online criticism of Mr Corbyn.

Theresa May says she has an 'open mind' over Brexit negotiations

Mr Smith’s net rating is only minus 14, but 64 per cent say they have neither a favourable nor an unfavourable opinion of him or they don’t know. If the Labour challenger remains widely unknown, he may take some consolation from the fact that as many people have no opinion of the new Chancellor, Philip Hammond, or his shadow, John McDonnell.

The poll found no evidence of regrets about the EU referendum. Despite some complaints that the question was too complex to be decided by a national vote, and the finding in last month’s poll that most people don’t want a second referendum, a majority, 52 per cent, said “the public should be asked in referendums to decide on major decisions about Britain’s future”, while only 35 per cent said “it is the job of politicians to make decisions about the future of the country”.

Nor was there much support for abolishing the House of Lords, as demanded by Mr Corbyn last week: only 32 per cent favoured that option.

The poll also asked about the US presidential election, and found that Donald Trump is even more unpopular with the British public than Vladimir Putin, previously the most unfavourably regarded leader to have been included in the Favourability Index. Mr Trump has an “unfavourable” rating of 76 per cent, compared with 55 per cent for Mr Putin last year. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is regarded unfavourably by 28 per cent, but favourably by 36 per cent, giving her a net positive rating of plus six.

Unsurprisingly, 70 per cent of people would prefer Ms Clinton to be the next president, while 12 per cent would prefer Mr Trump.

ComRes interviewed 2,017 GB adults online 10-12 August 2016. Data were weighted to be demographically representative of all GB adults. ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council. ComRes is not publishing voting intention while it reviews its methods. Full tables on the ComRes website.

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