Sir Keir Starmer is having a rather testing time as Prime Minister, to put it mildly. With violent riots breaking out across the UK within his first month in the job, the Labour leader has already faced criticism from his opponents for having ‘dithered and delayed’ on the issue. Now the public have had their say – and it’s not good news for the new PM…
It transpires that just under half of all Brits think Starmer is handling these riots rather badly, according to YouGov polling of over 2,000 adults on Monday. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Reform and Tory voters are most inclined to slam the new PM – while only a third of Lib Dems and a quarter of Labour voters are quite as critical. And Mr S notes that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper doesn’t fare much better, with less than a quarter of people in Britain convinced she is handling the disorder well. It follows backlash over ITV’s seriously questionable choice to have Cooper interviewed on Monday about the riots by her, um, husband. It’s hardly the best start for the new government…
Curiously, there are more mixed reactions to the police. While half of Brits think forces across the country have dealt with the disturbances well, six in ten people aren’t confident that coppers will be able to protect them from future riots. A staggering one in five people think that firearms should be used by police to tackle what Sir Keir described as ‘thuggery’ on the streets – and two-thirds of Brits would even support bringing in the army. Golly. Meanwhile, although Islamic extremism remains seen as the biggest threat to just over half of Britons, it appears concern has been steadily decreasing over the last few years. However, since February this year alone, fears about right-wing extremism has shot up by a whopping 15 points to make it the second biggest threat for 47 per cent of the country. Crikey.
Ex-Met police chief Sir Paul Stephenson also had a pop at the PM yesterday, saying he was ‘not hugely impressed with politicians using strong phrases to show they’re in charge’. The prime minister has repeatedly said that rioters will face ‘the full force of the law’ and certainly the courts have been full of ’em – but the latest data shows he’s got a long way to go to get the public on side…
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