RISHI Sunak and Liz Truss are hugely unpopular in Scotland, a poll has shown.
The survey by Ipsos Scotland found the former chancellor to be marginally more popular than the Foreign Secretary, but both are struggling for support north of the border.
Of the 1000 people who responded, 59% had an unfavourable view of Sunak, compared to 19% who had a favourable view of him and 18% who said they had neither view – creating a net popularity of -40%.
In the same survey, just 15% of the Scots who responded said they had a favourable view of Liz Truss, while 60% had an unfavourable view and 20% held neither view – a net popularity of -45%.
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The fieldwork for the survey was carried out between August 12 and 15.
Both candidates this week took part in a hustings event in Perth, where they made their pitches to Tory members in a bid to secure the votes they need to put them in Number 10.
In the poll, 55% of people who voted Tory in last year’s Holyrood election had a more favourable view of Sunak, while 45% had a more favourable view of Truss.
But both remain starkly more popular than Boris Johnson, with 74% of respondents reacting unfavourably to the current Prime Minister, compared to 14% favourable and 11% who held neither view, resulting in a net rating of -60%.
NEW from @IpsosScotland : Rishi Sunak narrowly leads Liz Truss on popularity among the Scottish public. 3 in 5 have an unfavourable view of each candidate - but both are less unpopular than Boris Johnson (1/2) pic.twitter.com/2Ik7RXHs1h
— Emily Gray (@EmilyIpsosScot) August 19, 2022
Meanwhile, Labour leader Keir Starmer had a 26% favourable response, 40% unfavourable and 30% neither – combining for a net rating of -14%.
Reacting to the poll, Scottish Green MSP Mark Ruskell told The National: “The people of Scotland can see through Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.
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"They may present themselves as a fresh start, but the truth is that they both backed every single one of Boris Johnson’s cruel and damaging decisions.
"Both of them were sitting in Cabinet with Boris Johnson when he cut universal credit, plunging hundreds of thousands of people into poverty during a pandemic.
"They backed his reckless and disastrous Brexit and supported the hostile environment and racist deportation flights to Rwanda. Neither of them offers the change that we so badly need.
“Next year’s independence referendum will give us the chance to do things differently. It will ensure that we get no more unaccountable Tory governments that we can do nothing to remove.”
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