Andy Burnham’s latest net favourability ratings are the highest for any prime minister in more than six years

Key takeaways

  • Nearly half of Britons (46%) have a favourable opinion of Andy Burnham, with his latest net favourability rating of +13 the highest for any PM since Boris Johnson in the early stages of the Covid pandemic
  • Kemi Badenoch’s latest net favourability rating is -16
  • Britons see Nigel Farage unfavourably by 67% to 23%
  • Just 19% of Britons now have a favourable opinion of Zack Polanski, down seven points from his peak in April
  • The public as a whole are twice as likely to see Sadiq Khan negatively than positively (50% vs 25%)

Andy Burnham favourability, August 2026

In terms of public opinion, Andy Burnham has got off to a solid start as prime minister, with nearly half of Britons (46%) now holding a favourable view of the Labour leader, up twelve points since prior to he moved into Number 10.

This is relative to a third of the public (33%) seeing Burnham unfavourably, down ten points since he took office and the lowest level recorded by our tracker since he announced his intention to stand for parliament.

Overall, this leaves Andy Burnham with a net favourability rating in August of +13, the highest recorded by our tracker for a prime minister since May 2020, when Boris Johnson was coming to the end of a short surge in popularity during the early stages of the Covid pandemic.

Indeed, during the ten years our tracker has run, that was the only period in which a prime minister has recorded a higher favourability score than Andy Burnham’s latest figure.

Positive opinions of Burnham are held by 76% of those who voted Labour in 2024, 68% of those who backed the Lib Dems, 53% of Green voters, 31% of Conservatives and 15% of 2024 Reform UK voters.

In all cases this is significantly more than held a positive opinion of Keir Starmer in our final poll of his premiership, with perhaps the most significant transformation being among Green voters, among whom net favourability of the Labour party's leader has risen 72 points from -45 to +27 in the space of just a month.

It also marks something of a clean slate for the government among Labour voters, with just 13% of those who backed the party in 2024 seeing Burnham unfavourably, relative to 39% having seen Starmer in a negative light a month ago.

Kemi Badenoch favourability, August 2026

While Kemi Badenoch’s ratings have undoubtedly improved in recent months, our latest figures show no further advance in opinion regarding the Conservative leader.

Around three in ten Britons (31%) have a favourable opinion of Badenoch, down four points from our previous poll at the start of the month, relative to nearly half of Britons (47%) seeing her unfavourably. Badenoch’s latest net favourability rating is -16.

Nigel Farage favourability, August 2026

Opinion towards Nigel Farage remains in a similar ballpark to that seen in recent months, with just 23% of Britons holding a favourable opinion of the Reform UK leader, while a full two thirds (67%) see the populist unfavourably, including a majority (55%) seeing him very unfavourably.

Although Farage’s latest net favourability rating of -44 is not an all-time low, it is down 17 points from the -27 recorded last May in the aftermath of Reform UK’s breakthrough at the 2025 local elections.

Zack Polanski favourability, August 2026

Green leader Zack Polanski shows no signs of recovering from the significant dent to his reputation caused by the scandal around his critical retweet about the police response to the Golders Green terrorist attack.

Today, just 19% of Britons have a positive opinion of the self-described eco-populist, down seven points from his personal peak in mid-April, while nearly half (48%) have a negative view of the Green leader, leaving Polanski with a net favourability score of -29.

This comes alongside a continued decline in opinion towards the wider Green Party, which had regularly been the most favourably viewed party prior to spring this year.

Ed Davey favourability, August 2026

Polanski’s rise to prominence has left Ed Davey as the major party leader Britons are least familiar with, with 42% of the public saying they are unsure in their opinion of the Lib Dem leader in our latest poll. This is not just the highest such level for Davey since March 2025, but compares to no more than a third of the public (33%) being unsure of the other major party leaders at present.

Nonetheless, a quarter of Britons (25%) have a favourable opinion of Davey, while a third (33%) see him unfavourably, resulting in an August net rating for the Lib Dem leader of -8.

Political favourability ratings, August 2026

With Andy Burnham now in Downing Street, the highest profile mayor in the country is undoubtedly Sadiq Khan. He is not, though, as popular as his former counterpart with the British public, who are exactly twice as likely to see the mayor of London negatively (50%) than positively (25%).

The positivity towards Burnham has also not extended to some of his key ministers, with Britons also roughly twice as likely to have an unfavourable (36%) than favourable opinion (16-18%) of shadow home secretary Shabana Mahmood and shadow health secretary Yvette Cooper.

Still yet to make much of an impression on the public is new chancellor John Healey, who 66% of Britons are unsure in their opinion about. Those with an opinion are near-evenly split, with 16% seeing the one-time defence secretary positively and 19% viewing him unfavourably.

While his first budget this autumn will likely raise Healey’s profile, his shadow, Mel Stride, has been in post for two years now, with an even greater 73% of Britons saying they don’t know how they feel about him. Such anonymity for senior shadow cabinet figures is not limited to Stride, with a full 79% unsure in their opinion of Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary.

Notably, this is significantly greater than the 59% lacking a view of Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf, even if more have an unfavourable opinion of Yusuf (29%) than an opinion of any degree about Philp (22%).

See the full results here

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