Rishi Sunak is the most popular UK Chancellor of the Exchequer in the past 15 years, as nearly 60 percent of citizens of the United Kingdom approve of his work as the head of the country's Treasury, the latest YouGov poll revealed on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th July, 2020) Rishi Sunak is the most popular UK Chancellor of the Exchequer in the past 15 years, as nearly 60 percent of citizens of the United Kingdom approve of his work as the head of the country's Treasury, the latest YouGov poll revealed on Friday.
According to the pollster, Sunak has been the most popular serving politician in the UK since March, when he declared that he was willing to do "whatever it takes" to save the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday, Sunak announced that the UK government would allocate an extra 30 billion Pounds ($38 billion), including the 2 billion pounds program to create new jobs for young people hit hard by the global health crisis and related economic hardships, to tackle unemployment.
"Polling conducted by YouGov after Wednesday's statement shows the latest raft of announcements have helped to solidify this status [most popular serving politician]. Six in ten (59%) now think he is doing a good job as Chancellor of the Exchequer (up 10% since June) with just 11% thinking he is doing a bad job (unchanged since June). This makes him the most popular man to hold the office in 15 years, since Gordon Brown [ex-Prime Minister] and still held his reputation as the 'Iron Chancellor' in the run up to the 2005 election," the poll said.
Brown served as UK Chancellor of the Exchequer for 10 years from 1997-2007, after which he became prime minister for three years.
Moreover, the poll revealed that 64 percent of respondents approve of Sunak's Wednesday statements, while eight percent disapproved of it.
At the same time, according to YouGov, Sunak might soon be forced to make tough and unpopular decisions as "both the unemployment numbers and Government deficit inevitably increases" in light of the pandemic.
The poll was conducted from July 8-9 among 1,614 adults in the UK.
