SCOTS are the least likely in Britain to think Rishi Sunak will succeed in Number 10 – with a grand total of zero agreeing he will be a “great” Prime Minister, according to a new poll.
Overall, 25% of people across England, Scotland and Wales said they thought he will be a great or good leader of the country in the future, according to research by YouGov.
However, more think he will a poor or terrible Prime Minister, with a total of 29%.
In Scotland, the figures show even less confidence in his abilities, with 15% saying he will be a good leader – and zero predicting he will be “great”.
More than a third of people – 35% – north of the Border think he will be a poor or terrible Prime Minister.
Just under a third of those quizzed both across Britain and in Scotland alone also predicted he would be an average leader, at 31% and 32% respectively.
In his first big interview since becoming Prime Minister, Sunak yesterday admitted trust in the Conservative Party had been damaged by the chaos of Liz Truss’s short-lived premiership and disastrous mini-Budget.
He told The Times: “I completely acknowledge that trust has been damaged over the past few weeks and months. I realise that trust is not given, trust is earned. My job is to regain people’s trust.
“The only thing that people will take away from the summer – hopefully from my track record as chancellor – I’m someone they can trust understands the economy.
“I’m someone they can have confidence in, who will manage us through what will be a difficult economic time. I’ve got a track record in doing it.”
But the YouGov poll of around 1600 people across Britain, which was carried out as Sunak took the keys to Number 10 at the end of October, suggests that could be a difficult task.
The poll found 41% of Scots don’t trust him on managing the economy and 56% don’t trust him on tackling the rise in the cost of living, compared to 37% and 24% who do have trust on these issues.
In the interview, Sunak refused to give any specific details of what could be included in the Autumn Budget, but gave some indication of his approach, including repeatedly refusing to rule out a return to austerity and warning that “no government can fix every problem”.
The YouGov poll also found 53% of Scots do not trust Sunak on managing the issue of immigration, compared to 20% who think he will make the right decisions.
Sunak defended Home Secretary Suella Braverman after she sparked a huge backlash by using the term of an “invasion” of asylum seekers.
“What Suella was doing was conveying a sense of the scale of the challenge we face, which is serious and unprecedented,” he told The Times.
