The UK public is most likely to say ‘don’t know’ (35%) when asked who is the most effective opposition leader, over Nigel Farage (28%), Rishi Sunak (19%) and Ed Davey (18%), according to new research from Savanta.
Labour 2024 voters are more likely to say Davey (24%) is the most effective opposition leader, compared to Farage (19%) and Sunak (16%), with all other voters choosing the leader of the party they have most recently voted for:
- 2024 Conservative voters – Sunak (43%), Farage (28%), don’t know (23%) and Davey (5%)
- 2024 Liberal Democrat voters – Davey (39%), don’t know (32%), Sunak (16%) and Farage (14%)
- 2024 Reform UK voters – Farage (75%), don’t know (12%), Sunak (10%) and Davey (3%)
Liberal Democrat voters have the highest proportion saying they don’t know who is the most effective opposition leader, and the lowest percentage picking their own leader, compared to all other voters.
In further research, one third (32%) of the public say Farage doesn’t spend enough time in his Clacton constituency, versus one quarter (27%) who say that he does.
Emma Levin, Associate Director at Savanta said, “Keir Starmer has been lucky in his enemies so far, who have been unable or unwilling to hold him to account. There is clearly a big gap in British politics for an opposition politician to properly take Keir Starmer to task. But that hasn’t happened yet.”
“Nigel Farage’s promise to be the real opposition to Labour appears to have fallen flat. And there’s an issue for Ed Davey too – his reticence to take on Labour could be causing an issue among his own voters.”
