More than three in five people think Sir Keir Starmer does not respect them, a poll has found.
While in opposition, Sir Keir sought to make the concept of “respect” central to his pitch to voters, and research from UCL suggested this played a key role in convincing the public to back him and the Labour Party.
But a survey from More In Common and the UCL Policy Lab, published on Tuesday, suggested 63% of the public now thought the Prime Minister did not respect people like them, almost twice the 32% that thought so before the 2024 election.
And while 41% of the public thought Sir Keir did respect them before the election, that figure has fallen to 24%.
The poll also suggested that a perceived lack of respect from political elites was driving support for Reform UK, with supporters of that party more likely to think politicians as a whole disrespect them.
Some 85% of Reform supporters said they thought politicians did not respect their contribution to society, while 86% thought politicians did not respect their values.
But while Reform leader Nigel Farage scored more highly than the two main party leaders on respecting the public, 50% of those surveyed still said he did not respect people like them.
That compared to 56% for Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and 63% for Sir Keir.
And just 33% thought Mr Farage did respect them, compared to 24% for both Mrs Badenoch and Sir Keir.
Tuesday’s poll has been published alongside a report from More in Common and the UCL Policy Lab examining how public opinion has changed since the general election.
It found 77% of people still thought it was time for change, while the most popular answer to the question of what had changed since Labour came to power was “nothing”.
Marc Stears, director of the UCL Policy Lab, said: “What voters want to know most of all is: who does this Government stand for? What kind of people does it most respect? Whose interests does it put first?
“A lot of the electorate thought they knew the answer to that one year ago. Now they’re not so sure.”
The joint poll surveyed more than 7,000 people in May and June this year.
