Blow To Keir Starmer As Six Out Of 10 Brits Think Labour Is 'Sleazy'

Six out of 10 Brits now think Labour is “sleazy”, according to a damning new poll.

In another unfortunate turn for Keir Starmer’s already beleaguered government, YouGov has released the results of a rather unflattering survey after asking 2,084 adults in Britain about Labour’s levels of sleaze.

A whopping 59% said they thought the government was at least fairly sleazy – that is more than twice the proportion (28%) of those who said it was not very sleazy or not sleazy at all.

In fact, 25% of those surveyed concluded Labour is more sleazy than the last Conservative government, and 28% thought they were just as sleazy.

This wave of disappointment even appears to have hit Starmer’s core supporters, as 30% of Labour voters also described it as sleazy.

The survey comes after a flurry of negative press for the Labour government.

No.10′s former chief of staff Sue Gray announced her departure on Sunday, saying speculation over her future had was overshadowing the government’s work.

She had faced scrutiny after it emerged she was paid £3,000 more than the prime minister himself.

Starmer has also endured significant backlash after he declared more than £107,000  worth of freebies from Labour donors.

HuffPost UK understands it was Gray who encouraged him to pay back £6,000 of those gifts, a move which was widely seen as an admission of guilt and led to calls for other ministers to return their gifts too. None have done so as yet.

It was not entirely bad news for Starmer though. YouGov found 33% of respondents thought Starmer’s government was less sleazy than the last Tory government, while 14% said they were not sure.

But, when comparing the prime minister to his predecessor, 35% decided Starmer is “sleazier” than Rishi Sunak – who was fined over breaching lockdown rules amid partygate – and 23% thought they were around equal, while 28% thought the current PM is less sleazy.

And when it came to Boris Johnson, who was also fined over partygate, 25% claimed Starmer is sleazier – but 45% thought the Labour leader is less sleazy, and 17% the same.

It is worth looking at the wider picture, too, as it seems 77% of those surveyed think British governments in general are either very sleazy or fairly sleazy, the exact same number who described the 2019-2024 Tory government as sleazy.  

Still, it seems Brits had higher hopes for government under Starmer’s leadership.

More than a third (38%) said they expected Labour to behave well, but they have behaved worse than expected.

Tony Blair’s former head of comms Alastair Campbell defended the government on Radio 4′s Today programme, saying: “You cannot make too many missteps in government. Government is harder than opposition, and Labour governments are held to much higher standards than Tory governments.”