Poll finds UK public view Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak as better leaders than Boris Johnson

Mr Johnson only scored higher than Sir Keir when respondents were asked who had ‘more personality’ (PA)

Britain's Labour party leader Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rishi Sunak are both rated higher by the public on their leadership attributes than Prime Minister Boris Johnson, new polling has shown.

But Mr Starmer and Mr Sunak registered similar scores when compared across a range of leadership skills, according to the latest Ipsos UK Political Pulse survey taken at the start of February.

Mr Starmer was rated higher than Mr Johnson on eight out of 10 leadership qualities, with the biggest gaps in favour of the Labour leader on attention to detail (27%), honesty (26%) and being in touch with ordinary people (16%).

Mr Johnson only scored higher than Mr Starmer when respondents were asked who had “more personality” (24%) and was good in a crisis (four).

Mr Sunak was rated better than the British prime minister in nine of the 10 attributes, with attention to detail showing the biggest gap in favour of the Chancellor (32%).

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer (PA Wire/PA Images)

The results comparing Mr Starmer and Mr Sunak showed the Labour leader slightly ahead in seven categories, with the biggest gap on the question of being in touch with ordinary people (12%).

Mr Starmer was also slightly ahead of the Chancellor on understanding the problems facing the UK, being a capable leader and honesty.

Mr Sunak scored higher than Mr Starmer on being good in a crisis (12%) and was marginally ahead on attention to detail.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson (right) with Chancellor Rishi Sunak (PA Wire)

The survey, which questioned a representative sample of 1,143 voters, also found 33% of voters think a Labour Government led by Mr Starmer would do a better job of running the country than the Conservatives under Boris Johnson, an increase of 7% since the poll conducted in June.

Of the Conservative voters who took part, 44% said Mr Sunak replacing Mr Johnson as leader would make no difference to how the country was run.

But 34% said the Chancellor would do a better job than Mr Johnson, with 9% saying Mr Sunak would do worse in the role.

Labour also received its highest favourability score since the Ipsos poll was first conducted just before the General Election in 2019 (37%), with the Conservatives score 1% down from the January findings (25%).