A YouGov poll conducted on 22 and 23 July 2026 has delivered the first net favourability readings for Andy Burnham since he succeeded Keir Starmer as Labour leader and became prime minister earlier in the month.
The survey recorded Burnham at +3, the product of 38 per cent favourable and 35 per cent unfavourable responses. That small positive balance stands above the opening numbers registered by several previous incoming prime ministers, including his immediate predecessor.
Among other senior figures, defence secretary John Healey posted +5. Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative opposition, reached -11. This represented her strongest score to date and the highest recorded for any Conservative leader in more than five years. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey registered -8. Green co-leader Zack Polanski came in at -26.
Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, recorded -46. The figure derives from 22 per cent favourable and 68 per cent unfavourable views. It matches the joint-lowest result in the entire ten-year history of YouGov's favourability tracker.
The data arrives at a moment when voting intention polls have shown Reform UK marginally ahead of its rivals. The party's consistent focus on control of borders, the restoration of national sovereignty and the defence of traditions that have shaped British public life for generations has maintained a distinct constituency even as personal ratings for its leader remain low.
Media portrayals often present Farage's unpopularity as evidence that the principles Reform advances lie outside the mainstream. The polling record itself does not sustain that reading. Badenoch's improvement, the narrow approval for Burnham, and Reform's position in voting intentions together suggest public opinion remains fragmented rather than decisively settled against centre-right positions on migration, fiscal discipline and social cohesion.
