Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

Is Truss in trouble?

New polling suggests she's unpopular, but it's not all gloom for her party

Credit: Getty Images

The history of political popularity shows things go in one direction: down. John Major entered office with a net satisfaction of +15 and left it having lost 42 points. Blair moved into Downing Street a whopping 60 points in the positive. When he left he’d fallen to -27. And so the story goes – even the Maybot started quite popular with a +35. Where you start can make all the difference. If things are only going to go one way, you want as handsome a margin as possible.

That’s why today’s political monitor poll from Ipsos Mori could spell trouble for Truss. She’s beginning her term in office on minus two. She joins Boris Johnson as the only prime ministers since 1982 to start on a negative rating. Include opposition leaders and they’re only joined by Jeremy Corbyn and William Hague.

By contrast, Truss’s predecessors – Boris excluded – held onto their positive ratings for quite a while.

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