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'Looks likes he's fleeing!' Keir Starmer takes record foreign trips as anger mounts in UK

by DD Staff

January 05, 2025

Keir Starmer on runway in Saudi Arabia

key takeaways

Sir Keir Starmer wurde gewarnt, dass seine ausgedehnten Auslandsreisen so aussehen, als würde er „fleeing“ sein, da die Unterstützung für Labour in den Wahlen schmilzt.

So ist die personal approval rating des Premierministers gesunken, seit er nach einem landslide-Sieg im Juli an der Stelle war.

Eine Umfrage von YouGov für The Times im späten Dezember ergab, dass Sir Keir's net favourability rating auf -41 gesunken war.

Two thirds of Britons said they had a negative view of the prime minister (66%), compared to only a quarter with a positive view (25%).

Pollsters added that the Government is also more unpopular than it has ever been.

Between December 21 and 23, more than six in ten Britons (62%) said that they disapproved of the government's record to date, while only 17% approved.

Even Labour voters, YouGov reportes are now divided on the government they elected, with 38% having a negative view and 34% a positive one.

Now, Bloomberg reports that Sir Keir travelled abroad on official business more in his first six months in power than any of his immediate predecessors.

He has spent 31 days on working trips since he took office, which, discounting the seven-week prime minister Liz Truss, is significantly more than the 19-day-average for all his predecessors going back to Tony Blair in 1997.

As of December 10, in 15 trips, the Prime Minister has visited 13 different countries, including France, the US and Germany three times each, The Metro reports.

Victoria Honeyman, professor of British politics at the University of Leeds, said: "Being an international prime minister can be incredibly positive."

She added: "If the domestic situation doesn't turn, if it doesn't start to pick up, then the criticisms of him being essentially absent will get an awful lot of traction because it looks like he's even essentially fleeing."

YouGov added that almost half of Labour voters (46%) said in mid-December that they had expected Labour to do well but have been disappointed.

Just 28% consider the party to be doing well - a figure which falls to 10% among the wider public.