These are very tough times for Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party.
Some polling out overnight done by Lord Ashcroft, published in the Daily Mail, suggests his personal net approval rating is now -59.
Give you some context of what that means, that puts him on an equivalent of where John Major was back in the mid 1990s, but more interestingly, almost exactly where Jeremy Corbyn was on the eve of the 2019 general election.
But there's something even worse than that in this poll. It suggests that on defence, taxation, migration and Brexit. And think about those four, because they're all areas that historically would have been stronger for Conservatives and for the Labour Party. In all four of those areas, we find Labour are now more trusted.
Nigel Farage discusses the latest Conservative polling figures
GB News
Keir Starmer's Labour Party, more trusted than Rishi Sunak's Conservatives.
Now the one thing we can also say through this and much other polling, is there is no great enthusiasm for Keir Starmer, no great love of Keir Starmer.
This is not 1997, it's not Tony Blair riding in on a white horse, and things can only get better.
And I do wonder sometimes whether a lot of the numbers in the Labour lead are just saying we can't bear the Tories, we feel let down by them. We're going to go for Labour with perhaps not being that sincere about it.
Now history suggests that things can turn around. It suggests that as elections get closer, polls narrow.
And I can think of the '87 general election, but perhaps even more so the 1992 election, when everybody thought Neil Kinnock will win the election. And yet, John Major got a majority of just over 20.
But to that I think this. I don't think the polling in those days was quite as accurate as it is today.
But I also think this. I don't believe this Ashcroft poll or many other polls that have been put out, I don't believe it's really about Rishi Sunak.
I think if Winston Churchill came back and led the Conservative Party, it wouldn't really help their ratings very much.
My belief is it's the Conservative brand that's really taking the hit. 14 years, people feel very let down. Nobody quite believes anything they come up with and say, and they keep changing leader anyway.
How on earth will getting rid of Rishi Sunak after the May the 2nd elections improve their prospects?
I believe that the Tory brand is absolutely in the bin. I don't think Rishi can recover. But tell me, am I wrong?
