US president’s popularity slumps in the UK

JOE Biden’s popularity in the UK has plummeted, with just a fifth of Britons holding a favourable opinion of the US president, according to polling by Ipsos.

Mr Biden’s low support included 41 per cent of people who voted Labour in 2019 saying they had a negative view of the president, and half of 2019 Conservative voters agreeing. Overall, 43 per cent of Britons surveyed said they had an unfavourable opinion with 20 per cent favourable. A further 37 per cent responded “neither” or “don’t know”.

The latest findings by Ipsos Political Pulse, and shared with The Telegraph, are in stark contrast to similar polling by Ipsos in 2020 before the last presidential election, which found that Britons had a net positive view of Mr Biden (20 per cent). While the two polls are not directly comparable, they do reveal a broad shift among Britons since Mr Biden was elected to the Oval Office.

It comes as Mr Biden struggles to show leadership on the global stage, with Republicans in Congress stalling the president’s efforts to arm Ukraine and his relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is increasingly strained.

Meanwhile, polling by Ipsos found Donald Trump’s long record of unpopularity in Britain persists, with 71 per cent saying they had an unfavourable opinion. That figure included 83 per cent of people who voted Labour in the last election, and 67 per cent who voted for the Conservatives.

Polling by Ipsos in 2020 found Mr Trump had a 76 per cent unfavourable rating, and an 84 per cent unfavourable rating in 2016.

The latest polling was conducted online between Jan 12-14 and covered a representative sample of 1,087 adults over the age of 18.