YouGov: Corbyn popularity plummets after Salisbury and anti-Semitism response

Jeremy Corbyn’s popularity ratings have tumbled in the wake of criticism of his handling of the Labour anti-Semitism row and Salisbury, a new poll has found.

Theresa May is more popular than the Labour leader for the first time since the General Election, according to the YouGov survey.

It comes after Mr Corbyn has faced a barrage of criticism from his own MPs and Jewish leaders for failing to tackle the anti-Semitism in Labour’s ranks.

While critics have also slammed him for his response to the Salisbury poison case after he initially refused to condemn the Russia for the attack.

Jeremy Corbyn’s popularity ratings have tumbled in the wake of criticism of his handling of the Labour anti-Semitism row and Salisbury, a new poll has found.

Russian ex spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia are both still in hospital after being poisoned by the Novichoik nerve agent.

According to the pollsters, Mr Corbyn overtook Mrs May as the most popular of the two leaders in June last year when the Tories suffered their election disaster.

For over six months that followed the Labour leader has enjoyed higher popularity ratings than his Tory rival, the poll showed.

It found that Mr Corbyn was still comfortably ahead of Mrs May in the popularity rankings in January – with a net favourability rating of -12 versus the PM’s -25.

But by mid-March the Prime Minister had essentially drawn level (on -15 to Mr Corbyn’s -19), and now Mrs May leads her rival by -13 to -23.

Jeremy Corbyn (pictured taking a selfie in Chelsea today at the launch of Labour's local election campaign) has faced a barrage of criticism from his own MPs and Jewish leaders for failing to tackle the anti-Semitism in Labour's ranks

Jeremy Corbyn (pictured taking a selfie in Chelsea today at the launch of Labour’s local election campaign) has faced a barrage of criticism from his own MPs and Jewish leaders for failing to tackle the anti-Semitism in Labour’s ranks

Theresa May (pictured in Copenhagen with the Danish PM Lars Loekke Rasmussen)  is more popular than the Labour leader for the first time since the General Election, according to the YouGov survey

Theresa May (pictured in Copenhagen with the Danish PM Lars Loekke Rasmussen)  is more popular than the Labour leader for the first time since the General Election, according to the YouGov survey

YouGov said the attempted murder of the Skripals gave Mrs May a chance to look Prime Ministerial and saw a jump in her approval ratings.

Over half (53 per cent) of Britons polled said they thought she handled the crisis well compared to just 18 per cent who said the same of Mr Corbyn.

Meanwhile, only 15 per cent of Britons think that Mr Corbyn has handled the recent anti-Semitism row in the Labour party well, compared to 46 per cent who believe he has handled it badly.

As Mr Corbyn’s popularity has slumped so had the Labour Party’s approval ratings, the survey also found.

It said that Labour’s net favourability score down from -8 in January to -17 now.

The findings come after 3,298 people were polled by YouGov.    



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