Corbyn now seen as ‘the worst Labour leader since Michael Foot’

JEREMY Corbyn is seen as the worst Labour leader since Michael Foot, according to a new poll.

Just 17 per cent of voters are happy with the Labour leader’s performance, compared with 72 per cent who are unhappy.

Corbyn’s satisfaction score is down from 27 per cent in December, and is now hovering just above the rock-bottom 13 per cent for his left-wing hero Mr Foot in August 1982 – the lowest recorded by any opposition leader. Mr Foot famously went on to lead the party to its worst post-war defeat.

The research by Ipsos Mori found that Theresa May is regarded as doing a significantly better job, despite Brexit chaos. The PM’s net rating – disapproval figure subtracted from approval – is minus 25, bad but nowhere near the minus 55 for Mr Corbyn.

In another setback for the Labour leader, he has dipped into negative numbers among his own party supporters for the first time since the general election in 2017. Labour sources believe Mr Corbyn’s initial refusal to hold cross-party talks on Brexit with Mrs May played badly with voters. The survey found that just 16 per cent think he has displayed strong leadership when handling the UK’s departure from the EU, and 69 per cent said the opposite – including 47 per cent of Labour supporters.

Overall, 35 per cent said Mrs May had displayed strong leadership. Among Conservative supporters the figure is 60 per cent.

Gideon Skinner, Head of Political Research at Ipsos MORI, said: ‘While 2017 showed Jeremy Corbyn can out-campaign Theresa May, at the moment despite her difficulties his public ratings are falling even further behind.’