Starmer’s popularity boosted by Iran war rift with Trump, poll shows

Striking new evidence has emerged about the popularity of Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to oppose Donald Trump over the Iran war.

The prime minister’s personal approval rating increases by 26 points when voters are reminded of his debate with the US president, according to a JL Partners poll. Independent.

Although Sir Keir is generally viewed as negative with a minus 14, it is clearly better than the minus 40 he received when his stance on the war was not highlighted.

The findings will encourage the Prime Minister’s supporters, who hope his cautious approach to Trump’s attack on Iran could help him avoid a leadership challenge if Labor performs as poorly as expected in local elections in May.

Sir Keir’s refusal to allow the US to use British bases for its first bombing was in stark contrast to Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform’s Nigel Farage, who criticized him for doing so.

But Ms Badenoch and Mr Farage have since backtracked, prompting the prime minister to take shots at them.

He argued that they had shown themselves unfit to govern the country by making the “wrong decision” about whether to take Britain to war.

Sir Keir’s refusal to endorse Mr Trump’s declaration of war on Iran prompted a barrage of insults from the US president.

In his most cutting sarcasm, Mr Trump said Sir Keir had shown he was “no Churchill”. The prime minister said he “will not abide by the president’s latest words.”

Mr Trump continued his attack last weekend, releasing a clip of a sketch of America’s new version of Britain. Saturday Night Live Satirical TV show mocking Sir Keir as a “coward” who is afraid of the president.

Defiant Sir Keir said he would not be intimidated, saying: “Much of what is said and done is undoubtedly said and done to put pressure on me, I fully understand what is happening.”

He refused to “hesitate”, clearly claiming that he was “serving” [him] so in the last few weeks” – an apparent reference to polls showing voters think he is right to disagree with Trump.

The findings emerged from JL Partners’ split sample survey.

Half of those surveyed were asked whether they had a positive or negative opinion of the prime minister; the other half were asked the same question after recounting Starmer’s refusal to allow the US to use British bases to attack Iran, Mr Trump’s “no Churchill” remark and his claim that the historic Anglo-American special relationship is “clearly not what it used to be”.

An overwhelming 57 per cent of the first group said they had a negative view of Sir Keir; only 17 percent had a positive opinion.

But when the second group was reminded of Sir Keir’s differences with Mr Trump, the number of those who viewed him negatively dropped to 42, while the proportion who viewed him positively rose to 28 per cent.

Although Sir Keir’s ratings appeared to have benefited from his handling of the war, Mr Trump’s sentiment among US voters was the opposite.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted this week, 61 percent of Americans disapprove of attacks on Iran, while 35 percent approve.

Political experts attributed this to the apparent incompatibility between the decision to start a major war in the Middle East and the pre-election promise to end “stupid wars”.

The president’s overall standing in the United States also continued to decline during the conflict.

When he entered the White House last year at the start of his second term, his approval rating was 47 percent, with 41 percent disapproving; The overall positive rating was plus six.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that disapproval now stands at 62 percent; His approval rating dropped to 36 percent; an overall negative rating of minus 26 percent.

Tom Lubbock, co-founder of JL Partners, said: “If you just look at the cold electoral politics, there is a huge reputational bonus to be gained by the prime minister positioning himself against the US president on the Iran conflict. This has played into the hands of various leaders around the world. The poll shows that the more people who become aware of the prime minister’s disagreement with the US president, the better his position will be.”

JL Partners interviewed 1,500 adults online in the UK between March 14-16.