𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Britons believe Sir Tony Blair would do a better job than the men wrestling for control of the Labour party and the country. Just days after the triple election-winner delivered a hard-hitting critique of the state of Labour, polling by Opinium suggests many voters believe the nation would be better off if he was in Number 10.

Four out of 10 (39%) of voters thought he would do a better job than Sir Keir Starmer with only 16% thinking he would be a worse prime minister. More than a quarter (27%) expected he would perform better than former Health Secretary Wes Streeting in the top job, with just 15% thinking Sir Tony would be worse.

And 23% said the former PM would be better than Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham at running the country. Just 21% he would be worse than Mr Burnham.

The polling shows the country looks more kindly on prime ministers who have long since left Downing Street than on those who lived behind the famous black door in recent years.

Of the nine most recent PMs, Baroness Thatcher is the most highly respected. When Britons were asked if she had done a good or bad job, she had a net approval rating of +14. The only other former PM to have a net positive rating was Sir John Major (+5).

Of the successive prime ministers, Sir Tony is the least unpopular with a net approval rating of -5, ahead of Gordon Brown (-10), Lord Cameron (-13), Rishi Sunak (-16), Boris Johnson (-21), Baroness May (-34) and Liz Truss (-67).

Sir Tony has not held back on stating his opinions, warning in an essay last month that Labour is “playing with fire” when it comes to the future of the party and the country. In a lengthy analysis of the challenges facing the UK, he argued that “trying to force the prime minister out before we know what policy direction we’re bringing in is not a serious way of conducting ourselves”.

James Crouch, head of policy and public affairs at Opinium, said: “For all the debate sparked by Tony Blair and the ‘hot essay summer’, the public still lean towards saying he was a bad rather than a good prime minister. Perhaps more worrying for Labour, they also struggle to see any of the party’s current leadership contenders as offering a markedly better alternative.”