Would-be Tory leader Rishi Sunak has seen his popularity plummet in the polls, as Britain's cost of living crisis starts to squeeze household budgets.
The Conservative Chancellor's net favourability rating has nosedived 24 points in the two weeks since the Spring Statement to -29, according to the latest YouGov poll.
Once a frontrunner to succeed Boris Johnson, Mr Sunak is now less popular than Labour leader Keir Starmer with all voters (-29 vs -25).
Minus 29 is Mr Sunak’s lowest ever result and is a 24-point decrease since March 22-23, and a 14-point drop since immediately after the spring statement, the figures showed.
Most Brits (57%) now have an unfavourable opinion of Sunak, compared to just 28% who see him in a positive light.
It comes as tax hikes, rising energy bills and sky-high inflation hammer struggling families, with campaigners calling on the Chancellor to do more to help.
Meanwhile, as Partygate continues to dog the Government, the PM has a lower favourability rating than both politicians among all voters at -34.
The Chancellor is also less popular than the beleaguered Prime Minister (+6 vs +7) among Tory voters.
Mr Starmer's net favourability of -25 is down from -21 on March 23-24, while his net favourability among Labour voters is 20 – 13 points higher than that of Mr Johnson among Conservative voters.
The findings were based on a survey of 2,120 British adults on April 4-5, YouGov said.
In further dismal news for the Chancellor's leadership ambitions, his popularity among grassroots Tory members has also fallen.
Tory bible ConservativeHome earlier this week put Mr Sunak third from the bottom in its regular Cabinet league table with a net satisfaction rating of just 7.9.
The only senior Tories to fare worse in the ConHome survey are party chairman Ben Elliot on 3.8 and Home Secretary Priti Patel who got a negative score of -13.6 after the botched handling of the Ukrainian refugee scheme.
By comparison, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace topped the chart with an 85.5 net satisfaction rating amid widespread praise for his response to the war in Ukraine.
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi was second on 66.4, with Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan on 64.4 and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on 61.1.
Tory activists put Boris Johnson in 16th place with a net satisfaction rating of 33.1.
