(Bloomberg) -- Rishi Sunak's approval rating among members of his own Conservative Party ended 2023 on a record low, highlighting the task ahead for the UK prime minister as he enters what's likely to be an election year.
Sunak's rating fell to minus 26.5 in December from minus 25.4 a month earlier, according to the Cabinet league table survey of Tory members by the influential ConservativeHome website.
The wider results for the rest of the Cabinet highlighted the dissatisfaction of party members as Sunak seeks to unite the Tories and overturn the Labour opposition's stubborn polling lead: A record low 17 ministers had scores above ten.
“Morale seems to be at rock bottom and so are ratings – with eight ministers, one fewer than our record total of nine, in the red,” ConservativeHome wrote.
The points tally is calculated by subtracting the percentage of respondents who are dissatisfied with a politician's performance from the percentage who say they are satisfied.
While the monthly results can be volatile, with Sunak's score fluctuating wildly since he came to power in October last year, it's nevertheless a marker of the unease in the ruling Tories ahead of a general election that must be held by the end of January 2025 at the latest. His party has trailed Labour by a double-digit margin for more than a year, with recent polling deficits coming in around 20%.
Sunak's rating remains well above Theresa May's score of minus 73.5 in April 2019, the record low for a Tory prime minister.
Most Westminster observers expect a vote in the autumn, but the government's decision this week to hold its budget in early March rather than the middle of the month keeps open the prospect of a vote in the spring. Sunak is under pressure to announce further tax cuts after slashing the National Insurance payroll tax last month, and also to bear down on immigration amid record levels of arrivals.
Recently-appointed immigration minister Michael Tomlinson was the only cabinet member ranked below Sunak in the December table, with a rating of minus 27.2. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt was third from bottom on minus 16.9. Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch — one of the favorites to succeed Sunak as Tory leader if the party loses the election — topped the ranking with a positive score of 63.9.
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