If Andy Burnham had hoped that good vibes would be enough to push Labour to a full recovery after the dire premiership of Sir Keir Starmer, then a new poll from YouGov has just given him a wake-up call.
Maybe it was no coincidence that Mr Burnham was at a summit on firefighting as he approaches his 100th day as prime minister on Tuesday, given YouGov’s research should alarm him and his Downing Street operation.
It is not that the results are particularly bad – certainly not Starmer bad – it is just that they are not good either. If Siri could come up with a definition for “meh!” it would probably look like the prime minister’s ratings with the public.
And the fact is that “meh” is not good enough, given that the first 100 days is meant to be a honeymoon period which represents the easiest period for a new prime minister.
Things are only going to get more difficult from here. His pursuit of “growth in every postcode”, as well as addressing the rising cost of living, represent two major economic challenges that are not helped by ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and in Ukraine.
In some respects the poll does reflect the caution and cynicism of an electorate that has seen seven prime ministers in a decade through a period of remarkable instability.
Only 35 per cent of those asked had expected Mr Burnham to be good anyway, and a third of them (12 per cent) have been disappointed. Another 37 per cent expected to be disappointed and almost two thirds of those have been confirmed in that view.
Mr Burnham’s TikTok videos on pub snacks and toy buses may have cheered up his backbenchers and given Labour a boost in the polls, but he is a long way from convincing wary voters that he is the real deal.
And the truth is that his problem is that he is able to talk a good game but he is a long way off from proving he can deliver on his words.
This is a prime minister who sets out high vaunted aims - far bolder than those of his predecessor Sir Keir. But he has so far avoided testing himself.
Mr Burnham, for example, appears to shun real press scrutiny having not done a proper press conference – where journalists could ask him what they want on camera – yet in his period in office.
And it is all very well saying he wants to fix social care. Everybody does. But we appear to be no nearer to finding a solution to an issue which has perplexed successive governments since Mr Burnham himself failed as health secretary on the issue 17 years ago.
All that can be said is that he has better ratings than Sir Keir. But then again, at this point in his premiership Starmer had suffered a summer of riots as well as announcing he was taking winter fuel payments off almost all pensioners in what might have been the worst self inflicted wound an incoming prime minister has ever attempted outside – Liz Truss’s mini-Budget.
The new prime minister also suffers from a problem that often the issues he likes to talk about are not ones which interest voters. This is especially true about his obsession with devolution.
It may be that the 14 per cent who decided he has been good, having expected disappointment, were won over by his £2 bus fare cap and VAT off energy bills. But even these reflect a PM who talks big but, like his predecessor, thus far has just tinkered at the edges.
The YouGov findings will not have people talking about Mr Burnham’s departure date as they were at this stage already setting the clock on the Starmer premiership, but it should quell any thoughts of an early election and show that the new prime minister needs to do much more before he wins the trust of voters.
