Nigel Farage is now even less popular than Starmer just before his resignation

Nigel Farage’s popularity among the public has plummeted to its lowest level in the past ten years, a new YouGov survey has found, placing him below Keir Starmer just before the PM resigned.

The pollster found just 22% have a favourable view of the Reform UK leader, while 68% are unfavourable – including 56% who say they are very unfavourable.

That 46% gap between his negative and positive rating is bigger than the 45% recorded by Starmer before he announced he was stepping down.

It is also bigger than the 42% gap between favourable and unfavourable ratings for Boris Johnson immediately after the first ‘Partygate’ revelations.

Farage’s popularity has been on a downward trajectory since the middle of August last year.

Since then, he and his party have been rocked by stories about the people providing them with donations and support – including the £5 million ‘gift’ Farage received before the 2024 election.

The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner was investigating whether that money should have been declared, but the inquire was paused when the party leader dramatically resigned his Clacton seat earlier this month.

Farage said he was going to rerun in the ensuing by-election, framing it as a ‘people versus the establishment’ battle.

But his move backfired when every major party declined to take part in a vote they variously described as a ‘stunt’ and a ‘vanity project’, leaving novelty candidate Count Binface as his main opponent.

Asked if Farage’s falling favourability alarms Reform UK, particularly in the context of Clacton, a party spokesperson said: ‘No.’

Attention has drifted away from the by-election – in which a record 34 candidates are standing, almost all comedy characters and independents – as Andy Burnham grabs headlines in his first days as Prime Minister.

There is much better news for Burnham in the YouGov poll, which has placed him as the first PM to start with a net positive rating since Theresa May.

It’s fairly narrow, though, with 38% saying they have a positive opinion of him and 35% saying their view is negative.

More than a quarter of the public still haven’t made up their minds about the former Mayor of Greater Manchester, who entered No 10 on Monday.

Besides Burnham, the only other political figure to generate a net positive rating in the poll is the new Chancellor John Healey.

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