Both TMay and Corbyn drop to record lows in YouGov’s favourability tracker
I always feel a sense of ownership with the YouGov favourability ratings for shortly after the referendum, in 2016, I got into a discussion with the pollster about a line of questioning that I suggested that the firm should do. My desire was favourability ratings on key figures.
The first ones ran here as the PB/YouGov Favourability Ratings when TMay had a net plus 12 while Corbyn was a net minus 25. This is calculated by subtracting the “unfavourable” responses from the “favourable” ones.
Of all the leader rating formats I regard favourability as the best. Ipsos-MORI have satisfaction ratings which has the problem that opponents of a party could well be satisfied with their leader if they perceived him/her as poor.
We ran these in conjunction with the pollster several times until YouGov adopted it as one of their regular trackers.
An interesting feature the current May/Corbyn comparison is a gender divide when TMay is the subject. Men give TMay a net negative of minus 50 while women have her as minus 28. With Corbyn there is nothing like as big a difference.
Amongst GE2017 LAB voters just 42% have a favourable view of Corbyn with 52% an unfavourable one. TMay still has a small net positive, plus 6%, with those who voted for the party last time.