Voters believe Theresa May was a more capable leader than Boris Johnson, poll finds
2 min read
More voters believed Theresa May was up to the job of Prime Minister than Boris Johnson, a poll has found.
Just over a third of the British public (36%) think the current PM is “a capable leader” compared with 46% who thought the same of his predecessor.
Mrs May's rating came in April 2018, nearly a year after her disastrous election result in which the Conservatives lost its majority and amid rising calls for her to quit.
The Ipsos MORI poll, which comes as the Conservative Party holds its annual conference, found that 81% of the British public are “dissatisfied” with how the government is running the country, with just 14% “satisfied”.
Ministers' net satisfaction score stands at minus 67, with only the governments of John Major and Theresa May achieving lower ratings since the company started its Political Monitor series in 1977.
Meanwhile a majority (55%) are dissatisfied with the job Mr Johnson is doing as Prime Minister, down 17% since he took over, while 37% are satisfied.
In a further blow just one in five (22%) say the word “competent” is an accurate way to describe the current government, while two-thirds disagree.
And more than half (53%) say he’s doing a bad job on handling Brexit, compared with 38% who think he is doing a good job.
A majority (51%) back his call for a General Election this year however, while a quarter (26%) would prefer to have it next year, with 5% opting for 2021 and 9% in 2022.
Elsewhere, in a blow for Jeremy Corbyn, the poll found that 52% think that there would be chaos if a Labour government was elected compared to 35% that disagree.
Keiran Pedley, Research Director at Ipsos MORI, said: “Much is understandably made of Jeremy Corbyn’s historically poor personal poll ratings but the truth is that Johnson’s government is historically unpopular too.
"The dim view that the public appear to take of both the government and opposition makes the coming General Election very unpredictable.
"However, Conservatives will take some heart in the fact that the public appear to prefer Johnson as Prime Minister to Corbyn."
On Labour, three in five (62%) Britons disagree that the party is ready to form the next government, while 27% agree.
A similar proportion (63% to 27%) of the British public disagrees that Jeremy Corbyn is ready to be Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, 43% agree that the return of a Conservative government after the next General Election would lead to chaos, while 40% disagree.
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