The proportion of Britons with an unfavourable opinion of Nigel Farage reaches its highest level recorded by our tracker to date
Key takeaways
- 69% of Britons now see Nigel Farage unfavourably, the highest recorded by our tracker to date, while 24% have a favourable opinion of the Reform UK leader
- While an unchanged 46% of Britons see Andy Burnham favourably, the proportion viewing him unfavourably has risen six points to 39% in the last month
- Britons tend to see Kemi Badenoch unfavourably, by 47% to 32%
- Zack Polanski’s latest net favourability rating is -29, while Ed Davey’s is -8
- 27% of Britons have a positive opinion of Ed Miliband, up four points since July, though 52% hold an unfavourable opinion of him
Andy Burnham favourability, September 2026
As he approaches two months in office, Andy Burnham’s popularity is yet to show signs of disappearing, with nearly half of Britons (46%) continuing to hold a favourable opinion of the prime minister, unchanged from our August figures.
However, this is now against 39% of the public viewing Burnham unfavourably, up six points on our August figures and the highest level since he entered Number 10.
Overall, this leaves Burnham with a net favourability rating in September of +7, which is down six points on last month. While this could suggest that the ‘honeymoon period’ is coming to an end, it is still a rare positive net score for a prime minister, as well as being 16 points above the -9 rating Burnham held before entering Downing Street.
Nigel Farage favourability, September 2026
In the aftermath of Reform UK’s annual conference, which was partly overshadowed by further allegations surrounding donations to the party, almost seven in ten Britons (69%) say they have an unfavourable opinion of Nigel Farage. While this is within the margin of error of last month’s figure (67%), it is the highest figure recorded by our tracker for Farage in the ten years it has run.
This includes nearly six in ten Britons (57%) seeing Farage very unfavourably, relative to no more than 50% having a negative view – to any degree – of the other four major party leaders.
Just a quarter of Britons (24%) have a favourable opinion of the Reform leader, leaving him with a September 2026 net favourability rating of -45, identical to Starmer’s score just prior to his resignation. This is down from a rating of -31 this time last year, with Britons now nearly three times as likely to see him negatively than positively.
Kemi Badenoch favourability, September 2026
Although attitudes towards Kemi Badenoch have improved markedly over much of the last year, opinion regarding the Conservative leader appears to have stabilised or even fallen back slightly in recent months. Around a third of Britons (32%) have a favourable view of Badenoch, still below the 35% peak seen at the start of August, while nearly half of Britons (47%) continue to see her in a negative light.
Nonetheless, one of the key contrasts for Badenoch is her and Farage’s relative trajectories: while the Reform UK leader’s net favourability rating has fallen 14 points in the last year, Badenoch’s has risen a full 20 net points to -15 since last September.
Zack Polanski favourability, September 2026
Green leader Zack Polanski has been confirmed as the party’s candidate for the upcoming by-election in Keir Starmer’s former seat of Holborn and St Pancras.
In order to win the seat, it’s likely he’ll have to be a bit more popular among his potential constituents than he is among Britons as a whole, just 21% of whom have a positive opinion of Polanski, while half (50%) think of him unfavourably. The Green leader’s net rating is -29, unchanged from last month.
Ed Davey favourability, September 2026
Opinion towards Ed Davey is also reasonably stable, with his latest net favourability rating of -8 likewise identical to his August figure. Ahead of the Lib Dem conference this week, 28% of Britons have a favourable opinion of Davey, relative to 36% viewing him in a negative light.
Political favourability ratings, September 2026
Fresh from announcing a ban on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, 27% of Britons have a favourable opinion of Ed Miliband, up four points since July, while 52% see the foreign secretary unfavourably, relative to 50% doing so shortly after his appointment.
Driving this small improvement in popularity for the one-time Labour leader is a 13 point rise in the proportion of 2024 Green voters seeing him favourably (to 39%), though a near unchanged 42% view him unfavourably. The latest figures for Miliband among other voters are within the margin of error of his July figures.
By contrast, opinion towards chancellor John Healey has followed a similar pattern to Burnham, with the 16% of Britons seeing him favourably unchanged from last month, while the proportion seeing him unfavourably has risen five points to 24%. Six in ten (60%) still say they don’t know how they feel about the fledgling Treasury boss.
It’s not just the cabinet that has seen changes in recent weeks. At the end of August, Kemi Badenoch also reshuffled her shadow cabinet, with high-profile names such as James Cleverly and Priti Patel leaving the Conservative frontbench.
Many of the newly promoted shadow ministers are, at present, largely unknown to the public. Two thirds of Britons (67%) say they are unsure how they feel about new shadow foreign secretary Tom Tugendhat, while more than eight in ten (82-83%) are unsure in their opinion of new shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith and ‘rising star’ and shadow business secretary Claire Coutinho. In Coutinho’s case, though, this is also true of the minister she is shadowing, Jonathan Reynolds (82% don’t know).
Tories will be hopeful that Griffith can make more of an impression than his predecessor Mel Stride. Over the nearly two years he was shadow chancellor, the proportion of Britons saying they were unsure of their view of Stride fell from just 79% to 73%, compared to just 46% being unsure of Rachel Reeves before she became chancellor.
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Photo: Getty
