UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s approval rating has hit its lowest since the election amid widespread unrest in the country, the Telegraph newspaper reported, citing a survey conducted by sociological and consulting company Savanta.
On Saturday, Sky News reported that Starmer had canceled his holiday amid ongoing protests in the country.
“With violent disorder spreading across the UK, his favourability among the public is the lowest it’s been since the election. It remains to be seen whether his response to the riots has a long-term impact on his standing with voters,” the newspaper quotes Savanta’s director of political research Chris Hopkins as saying.
The study showed that Starmer’s approval rating peaked on July 28, the day before the first unrest, but by August 4 it had fallen significantly. In addition, the share of voters who strongly disapprove of the new prime minister’s performance has grown. The publication does not provide information on how many people took part in the survey.
On Tuesday, YouGov published a study according to which almost half of the UK population believes that Keir Starmer was doing a poor job of handling mass unrest.
In late July, mass protests broke out in many cities in the UK after a 17-year-old teenager attacked children with a knife in the city of Southport. Three children were killed, several more children and two adults were taken to hospital in critical condition.
The protests escalated into clashes with police and riots after rumors that the attacker was a refugee. It later became known that the attacker was born to migrants from Rwanda. Hundreds of people were detained, dozens of police officers were injured during the riots organized by supporters of far-right groups. A number of British media outlets claimed that Russia had been allegedly involved in inciting the protests. The Russian Embassy in London rejected all such accusations.
Amid the unrest, the British authorities convened the COBRA emergency government committee three times. Starmer promised to increase the police presence on the streets of British cities, speed up criminal proceedings, and prosecute those responsible for inciting unrest on social networks. The Justice Department reported that an additional 500 prison places had been freed up and 6,000 officers from specialized police departments had been deployed to combat the violence.
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