WITH Keir Starmer's public approval ratings plummeting to record lows after less than three months in office, polling expert John Curtice has delivered his verdict on his performance as Prime Minister so far.

A poll from Opinium published over the weekend showed Starmer's net approval ratings now stands at -30%, down almost 50 points since he took on the position. He is now on a par with his predecessor Rishi Sunak at the height - or rather depths - of his popularity, and getting dangerously close to Liz Truss lettuce territory.

In fact, Starmer is viewed even less favourably than Sunak, and worse even than serial grifter and Donald Trump sook up Nigel Farage. There hasn't been a fall from grace as catastrophic since God chucked the archangel Lucifer out of the gates of Heaven.

Curtice's view on Starmer can roughly be paraphrased as: "He's pretty rubbish at this politics business, isn't he."

READ MORE: Humza Yousaf hits back at 'smears' over family's Gaza escape

What Curtice actually said was that Starmer’s “political antennae are weak” and he is “not very good at setting a narrative”.

To be fair to Starmer, Curtice noted that he wasn't very popular before the election. However, now he doesn't have the cover of an even less popular Conservative government to hide behind and his tin ear for public perception has nowhere to hide.

This weakness of Starmer's political judgment was evident even before the last election when Starmer admitted the right-wing Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke into the Labour Party even as he continued the suspension of veteran left-wing Labour MP Diane Abbott.

To this, we might add the shameful episode in the Commons in February when Starmer pressurised the weak and compliant Speaker Lindsay Hoyle to break with parliamentary convention in order to avoid the potential embarrassment of seeing many of his MPs vote in favour of an SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Politics is as much, if not more, about the appearance of things as it is about being honest and transparent in following the rules. Starmer appears to have no clue about how his acceptance of over £100,000 of gifts - including tens of thousands of pounds worth of clothing - looks to a public which is still struggling with a cost of living crisis which he has made worse by axing the universal entitlement to the winter fuel allowance for pensioners and his refusal to abolish the two-child cap on benefits.

(Image: PA)

Freebie suits that cost tens of thousands of pounds, that's really how to say man of the people while you're telling folk that their granny is going to freeze this winter.

When challenged on the gifts, an unrepentant Starmer has continued to insist that they were within the rules and bullishly insisted that it was a "step too far" to demand that he stops accepting thousands of pounds worth of hospitality from football clubs as that's the only way - he asserted - that he can get to attend a football match.

Following the controversy Starmer's office announced that henceforth he and government ministers would no longer accept gifts of clothing but said nothing about all the free concert and football tickets. Presumably, they will continue as before while those of us at the sharp end of Starmer's "tough decisions" have to forego leisure activities because we can't afford them.

All this comes before the budget statement due this month which has been widely trailed as containing "tough decisions" a phrase which we have learned is political code for punishing the poor, as these decisions never seem to be tough on the wealthy.

Unless Starmer can learn to appreciate political nuance in a way that seems alien to his nature, the chances are high that his approval ratings, and those of his government, will continue to nose-dive.

Meanwhile, the Tories are facing challenges of their own. Speaking at a "Future of the Union" event at the Conservative party conference, the new Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay proclaimed that Scottish independence is dead. His words might have had just a tad more credibility if he had not been declaiming them to an almost empty room. It's hard to sound convincing saying that Scottish independence is dead when your own party appears to have no interest in the future of the Union.

It's not just the Union that the Tory party isn't interested in, it's also maternity pay with UK leadership contender Kemi Badenoch suggesting that maternity pay was “excessive”.

Asked about the level of maternity pay in the UK on Times Radio on Sunday, Badenoch said: “Maternity pay varies depending on who you work for, but it is a function — where it’s statutory maternity pay — a function of tax.

“Tax comes from people who are working. We’re taking from one group of people and giving to another. This in my view is excessive."

Maternity pay in the UK is amongst the lowest in the developed world.

The Scottish Tories might have a new branch manager, but their snide nastiness continues unabated.

The Scottish Tory MSP for Mordor, Stephen Kerr, has accused former first minister Humza Yousaf of breaking the ministerial code while trying to help members of his family escape from the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

(Image: Archive)

On Monday, Kerr claimed that Yousaf had broken the ministerial code by engaging in a “personal phone call” with the then foreign secretary James Cleverly in November last year.

At the time, Yousaf's parents-in-law - who are British citizens - were trapped in Gaza after heading there to visit family shortly before the October 7 attack in Israel.

According to The Times, documents obtained via a Freedom of Information request show that Yousaf was told during the phone call with Cleverly that his family were added to the “priority list” of people seeking to escape Gaza.

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In response, Kerr accused Yousaf of breaking the Scottish Government’s ministerial code which states that nobody in public office should use their position to the advantage of their family or friends.

Taking to social media the former first minister said: They can try all the smears they want, but they won't stop me from talking about the atrocities facing the people of Gaza and Lebanon. As the FOIs show, not a single request was ever made by me for preferential treatment for my in-laws. They left alongside other British nationals."

A spokesperson for the Foreign Office confirmed to The Times that no preferential treatment was given to the former first minister or his family. But that doesn't stop Stephen Kerr from trying to use a humanitarian tragedy to score a cheap political hit against one of his opponents.

This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.

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