Key takeaways

  • Net favourability towards Keir Starmer (-46) is largely unchanged from last month
  • Kemi Badenoch’s latest net favourability score of -17 is her highest to date, as well as the highest of any Tory leader in five years
  • 27% of Britons have a favourable opinion of Nigel Farage, while 64% see him unfavourably
  • 50% of Britons now have a negative opinion of Zack Polanski, up sixteen points since last month
  • Andy Burnham remains the most popular Labour figure among the public, with a net score of +4, and is the only figure a majority of 2024 Labour voters see positively

Keir Starmer favourability, May 2026

It’s not been an easy few weeks for Keir Starmer, who is currently resisting calls from within the Labour Party to quit as prime minister following significant losses in last week’s local and devolved elections.

Nonetheless, public opinion towards the Labour leader is broadly unchanged since last month, with 23% of Britons seeing Starmer favourably, while three times as many (69%) view him unfavourably, leaving the prime minister with a net favourability score of -46 in May.

Kemi Badenoch favourability, May 2026

Substantial local election losses have also had no negative effect on opinions of Kemi Badenoch, with 31% of Britons now holding a positive opinion of the Conservative leader. Although this is within the margin of error of last month’s figure (29%), it is the highest recorded by our tracker to date, and is part of a steady upward trend in opinion towards Badenoch since the middle of last year.

While nearly half of Britons (48%) still see the opposition leader unfavourably, this is the lowest number in our tracker since January last year, with the resulting net rating of -17 the highest recorded for, not just Badenoch, but any Conservative leader since June 2021.

The improvement in opinion towards Badenoch has been most noticeable among Conservative voters, with more than three quarters of those who backed the party in 2024 (77%) now seeing her favourably, relative to just 48% this time last year.

Nigel Farage favourability, May 2026

Last week’s elections saw Reform UK once again make sweeping gains across the country, but there’s been no repeat of last May’s boost in opinion towards Nigel Farage, whose latest favourability scores are within the margin of error of April’s figures.

Just over a quarter of Britons (27%) have a favourable opinion of Farage, relative to just under two thirds (65%) seeing the Reform UK leader in an unfavourable light, leaving him with a net rating in May of -37.

Zack Polanski favourability, May 2026

The Greens achieved a record result in this year’s local elections, despite their campaign being overshadowed by Zack Polanski coming in for significant criticism after reposting a tweet that criticised the police officers handling the Golders Green stabbing.

As already seen in previous YouGov analysis, this has had a substantial impact on attitudes towards the Green leader, with half of Britons (50%) now holding an unfavourable opinion of Polanski, up sixteen points relative to our mid-April favourability tracker wave.

This shift has seemingly come largely from those who were previously unsure in their opinion of the self-styled eco-populist, with the proportion of Britons with a favourable view of Polanski falling just three points to 23%, leaving him with a net rating of -27, his lowest to date.

Indeed, opinion towards Polanski among Green voters is largely unchanged from last month, seeing him favourably by 65% to 15%. But whereas he previously enjoyed positive net ratings among Labour and Lib Dem voters, he now evenly splits Labour voters 38% to 38%, while nearly half of Lib Dem voters (45%) now see him unfavourably, up from 25% in April.

Ed Davey favourability, May 2026

Although the Lib Dems managed to make net gains for the eighth successive set of local elections, there is no such upward trend in opinion towards party leader Ed Davey. Around three in ten Britons (29%) have a favourable view of the Lib Dem leader, within the margin of error of last month’s figure, while 38% see him negatively, up five points from the 33% recorded in April, though level with his score in March.

Increased awareness of Zack Polanski now means Davey is the least known major party leader, with 34% unsure of their opinion of the Lib Dem stalwart, compared to 27% answering “don’t know” about Polanski, 21% doing so for Badenoch, and 8% for Starmer and Farage.

Labour politicians’ favourability ratings, April 2026

With the question of the future of the Labour leadership open at present, Andy Burnham remains the most popular potential candidate with the public. One in three Britons (34%) view the Greater Manchester mayor positively, though this is near-matched by 30% seeing him unfavourably. This leaves him as the only senior politician polled without a negative net rating.

If there is a full leadership election in which Burnham is unable to stand, Angela Rayner or Ed Miliband are favourites to be the candidate of the so-called ‘soft left’ of the party. The pair have near identical standings with the public, with 22-23% of Britons seeing either favourably and 55% viewing them unfavourably.

Wes Streeting, who has today resigned as health secretary, is viewed as a potential challenger to Starmer on the right of the party. Over the last month, his net favourability rating has fallen eight points to -28, with 16% of the public holding a positive opinion of him and 44% seeing him in a negative light.

Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper is seen favourably by 17% of Britons and unfavourably by 38%, while these figures are respectively 11% and 40% for home secretary Shabana Mahmood, and 14% and 65% for chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Other Labour figures have low levels of public recognition, with more than seven in ten Britons unsure in their opinion of education secretary Bridget Phillipson, deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell and defence secretary John Healey.

Andy Burnham’s status as the most popular Labour figure isn’t just the case among the general public, but is also apparent among Labour voters. A clear majority of 2024 Labour voters (57%) have a positive view of Burnham, relative to no more than 46% for any other figure polled.

Burnham’s net favourability score of +41 among Labour voters likewise vastly outstrips that of other contenders, far ahead of Angela Rayner (+13), Yvette Cooper (+12) and Ed Miliband (+7). Wes Streeting proves to be more unpopular than popular with Labour voters, with a net score of -9, although he does not perform as poorly as Shabana Mahmood (-16) or Rachel Reeves (-21).

Other figures, including Keir Starmer himself (-3), are divisive among Labour voters, with roughly equal numbers seeing them favourably and unfavourably.

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Burnham is also the most popular Labour figure polled among those who voted for the other four main parties at the last election, including holding positive net ratings among those who backed the Lib Dems (+24) and Greens (+18).

Conservative and Reform UK voters mostly see Burnham negatively (53-57%), though sizeable minorities (20-26%) say they see him in a positive light.

See the full results here

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