With less than a year to go before the next parliamentary elections in the UK, the political landscape of the country appears to be shifting back toward the Labour Party. Overall, though, the British public appears to be more focused on the royal family than on parliament.
A new poll released this weekend by polling firm ComRes in cooperation with The Independent shows that head members of the royal family are far more popular than Britain’s politicians. Also, in a surprise twist, Prince William is now more popular than the Queen of England.
The survey, which polled more than 2,000 British adults last week, shows that 68% of those surveyed have a “favorable” disposition toward the Duke of Cambridge. This is slightly more than the 63% who said they are favorable toward his grandmother, the Queen. Prince Charles comes in a distant third in the poll with a 43% favorable rating.
The only politician to come close to the royal family’s popularity is Mayor of London Boris Johnson who had a 41% favorable rating. Johnson most recently chastised former Prime Minister Tony Blair over comments on the current state of Iraq.
All of the other politicians included in the survey had net unfavorable ratings from the British public. David Cameron now has 46% of those surveyed saying they have an “unfavorable” view of the Prime Minister. Cameron’s unfavorable rating is rivaled by Labour Party leader Ed Miliband (49% unfavorable), Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove (47% unfavorable), Independence Party leader Nigel Farage (44% unfavorable), and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne (44% unfavorable). The most unpopular politician by far, however, is Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who has a 54% unfavorable rating.
Prince William’s incredible popularity comes just after his son, Prince George, celebrated his first birthday. Accompanying the Prince William’s second father’s day are new tabloid rumors that he and wife Kate Middleton could be expecting twin girls in the near future. The rumors have yet to be officially confirmed or denied.
Image via Wikimedia Commons/TheMatthewSlack
