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How Theresa May's approval rating has fared throughout Brexit negotiations

Thersa May
Thersa May

Due to her handling of the Brexit negotiations Theresa May's approval rating is sitting at a near record low of -32.

Just 29 per cent of the public approved of how she is handling her job at the end of October according to Ipsos Mori, while YouGov found in an earlier poll that she now also has a negative approval rating among Leave voters.

Over the past few months there have been numerous occasions where it appeared as though Mrs May was in imminent danger of facing a vote of no confidence as her party has voiced concerns over the Brexit process. Since the general election last year she has lost cabinet members at more than double the rate of her predecessors.

The Prime Minister now faces the tricky proposition of trying to get her Brexit deal through parliament, despite this situation seeming nearly impossible due to the many warring factions within her own party.

It's safe to say that Theresa May is currently not an especially popular politician. However it is easy to forget that it wasn't always like this. Far from it.

The honeymoon period

Upon taking over from David Cameron, Theresa May was immediately plunged into the thick of the Brexit referendum fallout, needing to make sure the result of the referendum was enacted despite having voted Remain herself.

Not phased by this historic task, she made a bright start to the job in the eyes of the public with 54 per cent saying they had a positive view of how she was doing in August 2016.

The Prime Minister's Lancaster House speech on 17 January 2017 was met with notes of cautious optimism by her party. In it she set out a 12-point plan for negotiations and vowed that the UK will not have “partial” membership of the EU “that leaves us half-in, half-out”.

Then, on 29 March 2017 she took the historic step of triggering Article 50, thus starting the process of the UK withdrawing from the European Union.

This proved pleasing to her party and the public alike with her approval score rising to 56 per cent in late April - the highest on record. All was going well. Too well.

The disastrous election

Such was the strength of her position that in Spring last year a staycation in North Wales prompted Mrs May to call a General Election in order to reinforce her position in Parliament.

While her approval rating was at a level not seen for a leader since the 1970s, Jeremy Corbyn's approval scores were plumbing new depths. This, it seemed was the perfect chance to extend her majority in the Commons to ensure a smoother Brexit.

It fast emerged that Theresa May's forte was not talking to ordinary people and that Jeremy Corbyn was actually not that bad at it. Given the Conservatives initially ran their election campaign as a presidential-style affair focusing on the party leaders, this had terrible consequences for the party.

May's net approval ratings plummeted alarmingly in the month before the election, going into negative territory for the first time.

In many ways this failure at the ballot box has made securing Brexit significantly harder than it otherwise would have been. The Prime Minister lost her majority, making the parliamentary arithmetic extremely unfavourable and was, from then on, was perceived as a "dead woman walking".

Then came Chequers

Following the election there came months of stalemate in the Brexit negotiations with David Davis emerging from his negotiating trips to Brussels with an increasingly grim look.

Theresa May gave a speech at Florence in September 2017 that attempted to mollify the EU and then another speech at Mansion House in March this year that was all about compromise.

Then came Chequers, the flash-point that triggered multiple Government resignations including from Boris Johnson and David Davis.

It seemed that just about nobody was supportive of the Prime Minister's proposals for the exit deal and this negativity was reflected in her approval rating which plummeted to 29 per cent approval shortly thereafter - a net score of -33.

Since then May has endured humiliation at an EU summit in Salzburg in September and has even draw ridicule for dancing her way onto the stage at the Conservative Party Conference.

Her approval rating remains stubbornly low at a net -32 according to the latest figures and, given the likely turmoil ahead, it is difficult to see how it will rise.

Few Prime Ministers have had to deal with what Theresa May has faced in terms of historic political problems - fewer still have seen their approval rating fall from such heights to such depths over this short a period of time.