Boris's personal ratings dive to MINUS 39 in poll

Boris Johnson's personal rating have dived again as he struggles to cling on amid the Partygate scandal.

The PM was viewed unfavourably by 61 per cent of Britons in the latest research by Ipsos Mori - up six points in a week.

Just 22 per cent had a positive view of Mr Johnson, giving him a net score of minus 39. That is comparable to Jeremy Corbyn in the run-up to the 2019 election, when Labour slumped to an historic defeat.

Keir Starmer has seen his ratings improve, but they are still in negative territory at minus 14. 

Worryingly for Mr Johnson the only senior figure in positive territory overall was Rishi Sunak - seen as his most likely successor. 

The poll, conducted over last weekend, also found 57 per cent believe Mr Johnson is a bad PM, an increase of six points. 

Gideon Skinner, Head of Political Research at Ipsos MORI, said the PM's net score is 'comparable to Jeremy Corbyn's low point during the last campaign'. 

'Ratings of the Conservative party itself are not quite as negative but are also on a slow but steady downward trend since last spring, which should be another concern for the Government and its MPs. 

'Among other leading politicians, Rishi Sunak has fallen from his honeymoon period but still receives the best scores among the public at large as well as from his party's own voters, while Keir Starmer also sees some improvement but still has some way to go to convince the public he is a genuine Prime Minister in waiting.' 

Yesterday a survey by JL Partners for Channel 4 News - conducted in 45 seats in the North and Midlands that were won from Labour in 2019 - suggested the Tories were 11 points behind. 

That would be a huge turnaround from the nine-point advantage they had at the last election.