Starmer has delivered some key wins for the UK recently, so why is he so unpopular?

 Points

• U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has achieved some major economic wins for the U.K., but his popularity is at a record low.
• The latest survey by pollster YouGov showed that 69% of voters now have an unfavorable view of Starmer.
• Cost of living pressures continue to worry ordinary British voters, while businesses reckon with Labour-led tax rises.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria Starmer serve tea and cake in Downing Street on May 5, 2025 in London, England.

Peter Nicholls | Getty Images News | Getty Images

A year into the job, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has scored some key wins, including recently signing major trade deals with the U.S., India and European Union that will boost the British economy and wages.

Opinion polls paint a different picture of his success.

A survey by pollster YouGov, published in mid-May, showed that the British public’s approval the prime minister has plummeted to a record low, with 69% of voters now having an unfavorable view of Starmer, while just 23% regard him enthusiastically.

More worryingly for the Labour Party leader, the fall in popularity is concentrated among Labour voters, half of whom (50%) now have an unfavorable view of Starmer — a 17-point increase from the last poll in mid-April. The share of Labour voters with a favorable opinion of him has meanwhile fallen from 62% to 45% over the month.

With things seeming to point in the right direction for the British economy, what’s going wrong for its prime minister?

Trade deals amid domestic pressures

The U.K.’s leadership might be touting their impressive record on trade deals recently, but cost-of-living pressures continue to worry ordinary British voters, and businesses are reckoning with Labour-led tax rises.

The U.K.’s annual inflation rate hit a hotter-than-expected 3.5% in April, up sharply from 2.6% in March, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Wednesday.

The data highlighted increasing pressures on British households, as prices of electricity, gas and other fuels rose by 6.7% in the year to April. The prices of water and sewerage meanwhile added 26.1% in the month to April, marking the largest monthly hike since at least February 1988, the ONS said.

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British businesses now face a higher tax burden as a result of government policies introduced in the “Autumn Budget,” as well as other measures deemed be many economists to be “anti-growth.” These include limits on immigration set to affect foreign workers — who are key to a number of sectors — a rise in the national minimum wage and reforms to workers’ rights, which put pressure on many small and medium-sized firms.

As such, lofty trade deals promising economic growth and investment that will take time to feed through are cold comfort for many British consumers and businesses struggling right now.

“On domestic policy, this government hasn’t scored well so far; let’s give it a C-minus,” Kallum Pickering, chief U.K. economist at Peel Hunt, told CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition” on Wednesday. ”[We’ve seen] mostly anti- growth measures and that’s the thing that disrupted bond markets over the past few months.”

On foreign and international policy, the government is “doing a fairly good job,” with its latest trade deals a testament to that, Pickering said.