Sir Keir Starmer suffered a fresh blow today as polling showed Nigel Farage is voters’ preferred choice as prime minister for the first time.

An Ipsos survey found the Reform UK leader was seen as a better candidate to be in charge of the country by 33 per cent of voters.

This compared to 30 per cent who preferred Sir Keir to be in Downing Street, according to the pollster’s monthly tracker of political preferences.

As recently as July, the Prime Minister led Mr Farage by eight percentage points in the Ipsos monthly poll.

There was further woe for Sir Keir as the latest survey also showed Labour’s Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is favoured as a better premier.

Mr Burnham recently sparked feverish speculation he was plotting a leadership challenge against Sir Keir following a series of outspoken media interviews.

But, during Labour’s conference in Liverpool last month, Mr Burnham was left humiliated after he beat a retreat and offered his public backing to Sir Keir.

In separate research, Labour was found to have sunk to its lowest-ever poll rating as the Government’s woes continue to mount.

YouGov’s latest voting intention survey found Labour were supported by just 17 per cent of voters, which was down three percentage points from last week.

This put Sir Keir’s party level with the Tories (17 per cent), just one point ahead of the Greens (16 per cent), and two points ahead of the Liberal Democrats (15 per cent).

Reform was found to hold a 10-point lead with Mr Farage’s party backed by 27 per cent of voters, up by one percentage point from last week.

Sir Keir Starmer suffered a fresh blow today as polling showed Nigel Farage is voters’ preferred choice as prime minister for the first time

An Ipsos survey found the Reform UK leader was seen as a better candidate to be in charge of the country by 33 per cent of voters. This compared to 30 per cent who preferred Sir Keir

Labour’s 17 per cent is the lowest voting intention score that YouGov have ever recorded for the party.

And – in a sign of the Left-wing challenge facing Sir Keir – 16 per cent is the highest voting intention score that YouGov have ever recorded for the Greens.

The grim polling for Labour comes after the party last week suffered a humiliating loss in a Welsh Parliament by-election in Caerphilly.

Labour had held the seat since the Senedd was established in 1999, but came third in last week’s vote behind Plaid Cymru and second-placed Reform.

The loss has sparked fresh speculation about a leadership challenge by Labour MPs against Keir Starmer. 

The next local elections in May – in which Labour is expected to perform poorly – had previously been suggested as a trigger point for a leadership challenge against the Prime Minister.

But the Caerphilly by-election disaster is said to have spurred talk of a move against Sir Keir after next month’s Budget in a bid to stem Labour’s losses next May, which is when elections will also be held for all Senedd seats and for the Scottish Parliament.

A senior Labour source told The i Paper: ‘You need a lot of MPs to agree to move and the numbers are not there.

‘But Caerphilly will only make them panic more. It’s when you see it in black and white that you get the wake-up call.’

The YouGov poll found that of those who supported Labour at last year’s general election, 18 per cent said they will now support the Greens, 13 per cent said they will back the Lib Dems and 11 per cent have switched to Reform. 

There has been a surge in the Greens’ membership in recent weeks following the election of ‘eco-populist’ Zack Polanski as their new party leader.

At last year’s general election, the Greens won just 6.7 per cent of the vote share compared to Labour’s 33.7 per cent.

Mr Polanski recently boasted of the Greens having overtaken the Tories to become the UK’s third-largest party following a surge in their membership.

The Greens now have more than 150,000 members, which puts them only behind Labour and Reform UK in terms of party membership size.