Burnham has higher approval than Starmer, but lags behind Badenoch – poll finds

Voters have a more positive view of Andy Burnham than Keir Starmer, but he lags behind Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch in favourability, polling from Survation has revealed.

The poll gives the former Greater Manchester Mayor and Prime Minister-in-waiting a 30-point lead in favourability over the incumbent among 2024 Labour voters at +38 to +8, with a 32-point lead among all voters at +0.5, compared to -32.

While Burnham leads Green leader Zack Polanski, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, he narrowly trails Kemi Badenoch in favourability, who leads with a net approval of +2.

The poll also found that Burnham is the most trusted leader on the NHS, industrial relations, housing and climate change. However, Badenoch was trusted most on education and the economy, with Farage most trusted to deal with immigration and refugees and asylum seekers.

Although Burnham has ruled out calling a snap election once he takes office, more than half of voters (52 percent) said there should always be an early general election when a new Prime Minister takes office – with almost a third of those (64 percent) believing it should be held immediately.

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‘Good start but Labour under Burnham will still have uphill battle’

Emma Burnell, editor of LabourList, said: “These numbers are a good start for Burnham but do show that Labour under his leadership will still have an uphill battle.

“As he takes power and starts to make hard choices, there will be complex policy areas where he will need to not just take decisions but be willing to go out and make an argument.

“This will need to be the model of his leadership if he is to retain the voters already tempted back to Labour and win more over.”

Survation surveyed 2,041 UK residents aged 18 and over between June 25 and 29.

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