Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s popularity among the public has collapsed to its lowest level since being installed in Downing Street last year, with a staggering 70 per cent of voters disapproving of his performance.
A survey conducted on Monday and Tuesday ahead of the contentious vote on the Rwanda Bill by YouGov has found that Rishi Sunak only has 21 per cent favourability, compared to 70 per cent who have an unfavourable view of the prime minister. The poll means that with a net negative of 49, Sunak’s approval rating has fallen to its lowest level at any point since a globalist-backed palace coup against short-termed former PM Liz Truss put him in Number 10.
One of Sunak’s first pledges to the public was to “stop the boats”, yet nearly a year after the promise was made the government has still failed to implement its flagship plan, with zero illegal migrants being removed from the country to asylum processing centres in Rwanda. The scheme, which has been held up in legal limbo before being struck down by the Supreme Court last month over safety concerns, faced its biggest political hurdle on Tuesday evening.
The prime minister put forward legislation to supposedly strengthen its legal footing by officially declaring Rwanda a safe country. However, the bill barely skated by the second reading phase on Tuesday evening, when dozens of MPs from Sunak’s own party abstained from the vote over concerns about the legislation leaving too much room for legal challenges to migrant removals in both Britain and Europe, given that it does little to address the fact that the UK is still bound by the France-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
The court, which controversially blocked a migrant removal flight to Rwanda in the summer of 2022, is technically a separate institution from the EU and therefore Britain’s membership was unaffected by Brexit. Critics of Sunak, such as former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, have argued that the prime minister must lead the country out of the ECHR to truly take back control of the country’s borders. It appears, for now at least, that Sunak does not have the stomach for such a move.
While the Rwanda Bill cleared its first major hurdle on Tuesday, the around 40 Tory MPs who oppose the law, said that rather than abstaining, they will vote against it at its next reading if significant amendments are not introduced in the committee phase of the legislation, specifically to reduce the ability of illegals to bog down the process by waging lengthy legal challenges to them being removed from the country.
Downing Street said on Wednesday that Sunak “won’t rest” until the Rwanda Bill becomes law and said that the government is willing to “listen to any suggestions on amendments” from the rebel Tories. However, Number 10 would not be pressed on how far they would be willing to change the legislation and it remains unclear if the more liberal elements of the so-called Conservative Party would back the more hardline elements desired by the right of the party.
Meanwhile, as Sunak’s approval ratings have continued to slump, Brexit leader Nigel Farage’s support among 2019 Conservative voters has surged on the back of his successful appearance on the popular I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! jungle challenge reality television programme, now besting Sunak by 21 points among the voter group.
Mr Farage, who has enjoyed some speculation to be a potential successor to Sunak at the head of the Conservatives if the party falls to Labour in the next general election — despite him not having been a member of the party for decades — said that the government is in “desperate trouble” and likely heading for a “catastrophic defeat”.
“They’ve no idea what’s coming down the track towards them. And I think the last thing I heard before I went into the jungle was that Cameron was back… if it’s got that bad, they must be in real trouble,” he told The Telegraph.
“And I see that he’s just about managed to squeak through a vote on Rwanda. But I mean, it’s going to make no difference at all. No, they’re in dire, dire trouble. And all Labour have to do is, frankly, not tear each other apart, and play safe and the election is theirs I think.”