I always feel a sense of ownership over YouGov’s regular favourability ratings. During the coalition years I was asked by YouGov if I would like a special question devised by me to be asked by the firm. After some consideration, I came up with favourability ratings which then were very common in the US but rarely seen in the UK.

After a few months PB’s linkage to this polling faded out and this became a YouGov regular.

Inevitably Johnson’s numbers in the latest polling are down on December when he was net minus 39. Starmer, by contrast, has moved from minus 24% to minus 19%. Patel continues to get the worst ratings.

The trends are all in line with other firms’ leader ratings.

Mike Smithson