Mrs May’s extraordinary ratings honeymoon ended with the manifesto launch
New YouGov polling just published had her dipping into negative territory
One of the striking features of TMay’s period at Number 10 is how she has maintained positive leadership ratings throughput. Whether pollsters were asking about approval, favourability, satisfaction, or whether she was doing a good or bad job all the numbers were positive from the moment she became PM last July.
That run ended in the aftermath of the launch of the controversial General Election manifesto a week last Thursday. As can be seen from the YouGov chart her net favourability ratings went negative only to recover a touch in a survey that took place following the Manchester atrocity.
The latest had her at a net plus 1 compared with minus 8% before Manchester.
The question now is which direction things will go in the final 12 days that remain before polling day?
There’s no doubt that the manifesto launch was a pivotal event.
In the meantime we are seeing the rise and rise of Mr Corbyn in the “who’d make the Best PM” ratings when compared with Mrs May.
As can be seen the number of voters ready to say he’d make the best PM has doubled since before the election was called.
One thing’s for sure – this election which appeared so certain and boring is now looking exciting. If the latest YouGov voting intentions are correct then the Tories could end up losing seats on June 8th.
Hopefully we’ll see many more polls from different firms over the weekend.