Rishi Sunak's popularity in slipping in Wales as majority think he's doing a 'bad job' as PM
The majority of people in Wales think Rishi Sunak is not doing a good job as Prime Minister, latest polling results reveal.
Confidence in the PM's leadership has shrunk since the last ITV Wales YouGov poll, with 58% unimpressed with his performance.
That's 17% more people losing faith in the PM's ability to lead after Mr Sunak failed to win back the Welsh votes lost after Liz Truss' short premiership.
We asked: How well or badly do you think Rishi Sunak is doing as the Prime Minister?
James Griffiths, Research Associate at the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University, said: "Overall the picture in Wales since the last poll is one of continuity, very little has changed in the overall Westminster voting intention, despite the Coronation or the resignation of Adam Price - that doesn’t seem to have moved the political dial in Wales.
"Few people in Wales think that Rishi Sunak is doing a good job. The change that we’re seeing at the moment is within the margin of error which indicates that not a lot has changed since the last poll.
"The Conservatives and Rishi Sunak are struggling with things like the cost of living and seem to be struggling to make a dent in the political landscape."
Westminster voting intention:
Conservative - 19% (-1)Labour - 49% (no change)Lib Dem - 8% (+3)Plaid Cymru - 10% (-4)Reform UK - 9% (no change)Green - 4% (+1)Other - 1% (no change)
Those who answered the poll put Labour in the lead with 49% saying the party would get their vote. Support for Conservatives nationally and Plaid Cymru dropped, while the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party have made small gains since February.
Dr Griffiths said: "It’s very difficult to read anything from the Lib Dems and the Greens in this poll. The changes that we’re observing are quite small - within the margin of error - which suggests very little has changed. That comes off the back of strong showings for Lib Dems and Greens in the Local Elections in England.
"Continuity is a big theme between the polls in Wales. That is possibly because very little has happened to move the political dial in Wales. That might seem surprising given we’ve had the Coronation and the leader of one of parties in Wales has resigned - but it doesn’t seem like any of these events have had any impact on people’s voting intention."
What about Plaid Cymru?
"One of the problems that Plaid Cymru are facing is that despite their leader resigning, people seem very unsure what to think of Adam Price’s time in charge," Dr Griffiths said.
"Very few people think he was wrong to resign but nearly half of the sample don’t know how to assess his time as leader of Plaid Cymru."
We asked: Thinking back over Adam Price's time as Leader of Plaid Cymru, do you think he has been a good or bad Leader for Plaid Cymru?
Adam Price stepped down as leader of Plaid Cymru following allegations of bullying and harassment within his party. Dr Price, who has been leader since 2018, said he felt "morally bound" to step down as leader following a recent report which revealed women were let down by the party when it failed to implement a zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment.
We asked: Do you think Adam Price was right or wrong to resign from his role as Leader of Plaid Cymru?
Right - 44%Wrong - 7%Don't know - 49%
Llŷr Gruffydd was unanimously chosen to be the party's interim leader until a new leader is in post.
But the fact that so many of those polled "don't know" how to assess Adam Price's five years of leadership is "potentially quite concerning" for the party, as there's still a lot of uncertainty surrounding them as a party.
Dr Griffiths added: "It’s difficult to know why Plaid Cymru are struggling to cut through to voters - there does seem to be a lot of uncertainty surrounding the former leadership and the interim leadership.
"There often seems to be more uncertainty surrounding the leaders of the devolved parties - it’s something we’ve seen historically, with Mark Drakeford being a unique aberration and people knowing quite a lot about him because of the pandemic.
"It’s a problem devolved leaders often have in Wales, that they are considerably less known than their Westminster counterparts."
YouGov polled a representative sample of 1,064 Welsh voters, aged 16+, between May 12 and May 17 for ITV Cymru Wales and Cardiff University.