Boris Johnson ‘significantly less popular’ than Theresa May when she became UK prime minister
New UK prime minister Boris Johnson is “significantly less popular” than Theresa May was when she took over the top job, a poll has revealed.
Mr Johnson was named Tory leader on Tuesday, securing 66% of Conservative Party’s members’ votes to defeat challenger Jeremy Hunt.
He will officially become prime minister on Wednesday after Theresa May tenders her resignation to the Queen and he follows her to Buckingham Palace to ask to form his own government.
But according to a poll by YouGov, Mr Johnson is already on the back foot with the UK public, almost two-thirds of whom have a negative view of him.
According to a YouGov poll of 1,655 adults, Mr Johnson has a net favourability score of -27 - with 31% having a favourable view of him but 58% perceiving him in a negative light.
1/ He is much less popular than May was at the time she took over. Johnson currently has a net favourability score of -27, compared to May’s +12 in August 2016 (although he does beat her current score of -37) https://t.co/JEc4LoirGm pic.twitter.com/NDSj8AnStf
— YouGov (@YouGov) July 23, 2019
This compares to Mrs May’s score of +12 when she became prime minister in 2016 in the wake of the Brexit referendum and the resignation of David Cameron.
When she took over, Mrs May was viewed favourably by 48% and unfavourably by 36%.
However, by the time she left office, 62% of the public had a negative view of Mrs May.
The views of Mr Johnson differ depending on his previous roles - only one in four people thought he did a good job as foreign secretary, compared to 47% who believed he was a good mayor of London.
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However, almost half (46%) think Mr Johnson will worsen the UK’s image abroad, compared to 16% who think he will improve it.
Only one in five expect him to be a good or great prime minister, while 50% think he will be a poor or terrible one.
When asked what house Mr Johnson would be in if he was at Hogwarts, 42% said he belongs in Slytherin.
Only 19% believe Mr Johnson will be able to negotiate a new Withdrawal Agreement with the EU that Parliament can approve.
Chris Curtis, political research manager at YouGov, said: “If Boris can prove the public wrong by taking Britain out of the EU by the end of October in a way that is considered successful, he will likely bring those Brexit Party voters back into the Conservative fold and stand a good chance of victory going into a subsequent election.
“But if he fails he could alienate the hard Brexiteers who are currently his core base, and these bad numbers could get even worse.
Either way, he will live and die based on how well he handles Brexit over the coming months.”
