One third of Labour members think Keir Starmer is doing a BAD job

One third of Labour members think Sir Keir Starmer is doing a BAD job as leader and one in four believe he has changed things for the worse in new poll showing the scale of the party’s divisions

  • YouGov poll found 64 per cent of Labour members think Keir Starmer doing well
  • But a third, 34 per cent, said they believe Sir Keir is doing a bad job as leader
  • Almost one in four Labour members think he has changed party for the worse 

One in three Labour members believe Sir Keir Starmer is doing a bad job as party leader, according to a new poll. 

A YouGov survey revealed that 64 per cent of members believe Sir Keir is doing well but 34 per cent said the opposite. 

Meanwhile, almost a quarter of members said they believed the party leader had changed Labour for the worse.

The numbers paint a picture of a divided party, with Sir Keir apparently struggling to win over certain factions.        

A new YouGov survey showed one third of Labour members believe Sir Keir Starmer is doing a bad job as party leader 

The numbers suggest that Sir Keir, pictured today during a visit to the Gower in Wales, is struggling to win over certain factions in the Labour Party

The numbers suggest that Sir Keir, pictured today during a visit to the Gower in Wales, is struggling to win over certain factions in the Labour Party

The YouGov poll of 1,073 Labour members showed that overall 64 per cent believe Sir Keir is doing well as leader and 34 per cent believe he is doing badly.  

But when the responses are split based on who members voted for in last year’s leadership contest, the numbers suggest the current leader is facing fierce resistance from some on the left wing of the party.   

Of the members who voted for Sir Keir, some 81 per cent said they believe he is doing well versus just 17 per cent who said he is doing badly.

The numbers were not too dissimilar for those members who voted for Lisa Nandy, with 69 per cent saying Sir Keir is doing well and 28 per cent said he is doing badly.

But the numbers were the opposite way around when members who voted for Rebecca Long-Bailey were asked the same question. 

Just 17 per cent of those members said they believed Sir Keir is doing well versus 82 per cent who said he is doing badly. 

Ms Long-Bailey was viewed in the leadership contest as being the closest politically to former leader Jeremy Corbyn.  

Despite the split in the party illustrated by the numbers, Sir Keir still appears to be doing better than his predecessor after one year in the job. 

In August 2016 a poll showed 53 per cent of Labour members believed Mr Corbyn was doing well while 45 per cent believed he was doing badly.    

When asked if Sir Keir had changed the Labour Party for the better or for the worse or made no difference, some 48 per cent of members said he had made a positive impact. 

But 27 per cent said they thought he had not made any real difference to the party and 22 per cent said they thought he had changed Labour for the worse.         

Some 22 per cent of Labour members believe Sir Keir has changed the party for the worse

Some 22 per cent of Labour members believe Sir Keir has changed the party for the worse

An Opinium survey published last weekend gave the Tories a nine point lead over the Labour Party

An Opinium survey published last weekend gave the Tories a nine point lead over the Labour Party

Members were split down the middle on whether Sir Keir will become prime minister. 

Some 46 per cent said they think it is likely he will one day secure the keys to 10 Downing Street while 45 per cent said they think it is unlikely.   

Seven in 10 Labour members believe Sir Keir should remain as leader while 23 per cent think he should be replaced. 

The YouGov poll comes after a survey published last weekend gave the Tories a nine point lead over Labour. 

An Opinium survey put the Conservatives on 45 per cent of the vote, up four points on two weeks ago, while Labour was on 36 per cent, down one point.

It was the biggest gap recorded between the two main UK parties since May last year.