Almost half of voters think Starmer has failed to set out clear vision

Keir Starmer still struggling to win over voters as polling shows almost half of Britons think he’s failed to set out a clear vision, many don’t know his Brexit stance, one-third think he’s ‘average’ and a quarter think he’s not moved Labour on from Corbyn

• Sir Keir Starmer is marking his third anniversary of being elected Labour leader 

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to be ‘completely ruthless’ in his bid to become prime minister – but new polling shows he is still struggling to covince British voters.

The Labour leader today marks his third anniversary in charge of his party since being elected to replace Jeremy Corbyn in April 2020.

A YouGov poll for The Times revealed almost half of voters (47 per cent) think he has done badly at setting out a clear vision for Labour during that time.

The survey also found that 49 per cent think Sir Keir has been unclear about Labour’s stance on Brexit, and one-third (34 per cent) think he has been an ‘average’ leader.

The poll found public backing for Sir Keir’s recent move to block Mr Corbyn from standing as a Labour candidate at the next general election.

But a quarter (26 per cent) of voters still think he’s not moved the party far enough on from his predecessor’s spell as leader.

Sir Keir Starmer today marks his third anniversary in charge of his party since being elected to replace Jeremy Corbyn in April 2020

Only one in five Britons considered Sir Keir to have been a ‘great’ (2 per cent) or ‘good’ (20 per cent) leader

Two in five voters (41 per cent) thought Sir Keir had not made any real difference to the Labour Party as leader

In an interview with the newspaper, Sir Keir said he was ‘very clearly gunning for the finishing line’ in the race to reach Downing Street.

He described his leadership of Labour as a three-stage project; firstly to ‘change’ the party when succeeding Mr Corbyn, secondly to ‘expose the Government as not fit to govern’, and then to present a ‘positive case’ for people to vote for him and his party.

‘That’s the bit we’re on now,’ Sir Keir said. ‘I’ve always been clear that there’s three stages.

‘And we’re now at the stage where we’re very clearly gunning for the finishing line.

‘That has required an absolute focus on not being blown off course by the very many helpful or unhelpful comments from others — and complete ruthlessness.’

But the YouGov poll suggested Sir Keir still has work to do to win over the British public.

Only one in five Britons considered him to have been a ‘great’ (2 per cent) or ‘good’ (20 per cent) leader.

This was lower than the 28 per cent who believed he had been ‘poor’ or ‘terrible’, but the most common response was that he had simply been ‘average’ (34 per cent). 

Almost half of voters (47 per cent) thought Sir Keir had done badly in setting out a clear vision for Labour, compared to 31 per cent who thought he had done well.

The survey also showed that 44 per cent believed Sir Keir had done badly in convincing people that Labour can be trusted with the economy, while 34 per cent thought he had done well. 

Almost half (49 per cent) were unclear about Labour’s policy on Brexit, with 22 per cent saying it was clear.

Similarly, 42 per cent were unclear about Labour’s economic policies, compared with 28 per cent who said they were clear.

Almost half of voters (47 per cent) thought Sir Keir had done badly in setting out a clear vision for Labour, compared to 31 per cent who thought he had done well

Sir Keir last week formally blocked Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a Labour candidate at the next general election and branded his predecessor an electoral liability

A majority of the British public (56 per cent) were shown to believe Mr Corbyn is an electoral liability to Labour compared to 14 per cent who think he is an electoral asset

Sir Keir last week formally blocked Mr Corbyn from standing as a Labour candidate at the next general election and branded his predecessor an electoral liability.

His view appeared to be supported by the majority of the British public, with 56 per cent believing Mr Corbyn is an electoral liability to Labour compared to 14 per cent who think he is an electoral asset.

This view was also shared among those who voted Labour at the 2019 general election, with 44 per cent viewing Mr Corbyn as an electoral liability compared to a quarter (27 per cent) who think he is an asset.

But the survey also found that a quarter (26 per cent) of all voters thought Sir Keir had not moved far enough on from the policies and values of Mr Corbyn since replacing him as Labour leader.

This compared to 15 per cent who thought he had moved too far, 27 per cent who thought he had got the balance about right, and 32 per cent who said they didn’t know.

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