After being a polling phenomenon Boris Johnson joins the negative ratings club
Being a cabinet minister means he’s much less in the limelight
One of the PB YouGov Favourability Ratings that hasn’t attracted much attention is that for the former longstanding favourite to succeed Cameron, the ex-Mayor and current Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson.
He recorded a net minus 5 which wasn’t so bad compared with the other politicians in the list but significantly means he’s now in negative territory. Only his boss of UK politicians in the list, Theresa May,is viewed more favourably than negatively.
How very different to most of the past decade or so. Johnson was unique and appeared to have an appeal that went well beyond his party and almost whenever ratings questions were asked he came out top. Whether it was asked who’d make the best PM, whether people were satisfied, approved or doing his job well he was right up there with the best ratings of all. And he was just about always in positive territory.
Quite simply different rules appeared to apply to Boris partly because he was such a media magnet.
Looking back the most decisive moment for him was his February decision to back leave rather than remain in the referendum. That appeared to provide the vehicle for promotion to PM as well as giving him an even higher profile than he’d had. When on June 24th Cameron resigned all seemed set.
But then we got into the dramatic Tory leadership campaign when on that Thursday he pulled out of the race.
The PB YouGov Favourability Rating shows that amongst those who’d voted REMAIN he had a minus 63% rating which wasn’t offset by the 44% positive from LEAVE voters.
He’s now got a significant role in BREXIT but with far fewer opportunities to grab the headlines any more.
There are many who think that the PM has played a blinder in her dealings with Boris.