Burnham Governs as Preferred PM but Faces a Sceptical Public
Andy Burnham enters Downing Street as the public’s clear choice for prime minister but with doubts over his readiness, polling suggests. Ipsos found three in ten Britons named him their preferred premier, on 30 per cent, well ahead of Reform’s Nigel Farage on 16 per cent and the Conservatives’ Kemi Badenoch on 13. Yet on raw voting intention Reform still led Labour narrowly, by 26 per cent to 24.
The survey of 1,045 adults, conducted in late June before Mr Burnham replaced Sir Keir Starmer, found the public split on whether he is ready for the job: 29 per cent agreed he was, against 39 per cent who did not. Keiran Pedley, Ipsos’s director of politics, said Labour “will be more optimistic about the future than they were a month ago”, but cautioned that “the jury is out with the public on whether Burnham himself is ready to be Prime Minister and whether a Burnham government will deliver in office”. Watch whether his cost-of-living blitz shifts the numbers.