CHANCELLOR Rishi Sunak’s popularity is plummeting in the polls amid revelations into his finances and wife Akshata Murty’s non-dom status.
The once Prime Ministerial hopeful is now reportedly out of the running for the top job, according to senior Tories, and he could also be on the way out as Chancellor.
And now, an investigation has been launched into Sunak’s finances after he requested a probe by the PM’s independent ethics adviser Lord Geidt.
The National have pulled together some graphs from data provided by YouGov and Conservative Home, to plot the timeline of "dishy Rishi’s" fall from darling of the Tory party.
How far has Rishi Sunak’s popularity fallen?
As the above graph shows, using data from YouGov, Sunak had a relatively high net favourability rating amongst the UK public in July 2020, with 27%. This began to drop significantly in October 2021, after the UK Budget, where Sunak announced a plan to cut tax on flights across the UK, just weeks before the COP26 conference was due to kick off in Glasgow.
Sunak’s popularity continues to fall up to the Spring Statement in March 2022, where the Chancellor had been urged to provide assistance for the cost of living crisis, but he did not. Scottish Finance Secretary Forbes criticised the Chancellor for failing to offer immediate assistance to help with soaring energy bills and increase benefits.
The latest poll from April 2022, shows the Chancellor’s lowest score yet, at -29%, a 14-point drop from March, after revelations about his wife’s non-dom status and that he held a US Green card for over a year during his tenure as head of the Treasury.
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How does Rishi Sunak’s popularity compare to other cabinet members?
In January 2021, Sunak was the most popular cabinet member amongst respondents to YouGov polling. Data on Foreign Secretary Liz Truss’s popularity ratings was only available from September 2021, but both politicians saw a continual slow decline to -29% by April 2022.
In fact all four politicians featured - Sunak, Truss, PM Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel, all saw their popularity ratings plummet after partygate revelations began to emerge in November 2021.
Johnson, whose poll ratings plummeted by 14 points between November and December 2021, saw a boost again in March 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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What is Rishi Sunak’s popularity amongst Conservative voters?
For this analysis, we used data from Conservative Home, a blog which is independent from, but supportive of, the Tory party.
The website frequently publishes net satisfaction ratings for members of the UK cabinet, which are plotted on the graph above. Sunak took the top stop as favourite of party members in July 2020, and held the spot until December 2020 when Truss took over the top spot.
Sunak almost caught up with Truss in June 2021, when he had a 86.3% satisfaction rating, falling just short of Truss’s 87.2%. But, from then on it was a downward trend for the Chancellor, and by April 2022 he was way down the list of favourites, with only a 7.9% positive rating on the Tory blog.
Conversely, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who saw a gradual rise before overtaking Truss for the top spot in February 2022. Both Wallace and Johnson’s popularity ratings saw a boost after the Ukraine invasion amongst Tory voters.
Not long ago Sunak was seen as a shoe-in for Prime Minister, but these graphs show just how quickly things can change in politics.
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