Keir Starmer’s personal ratings dropped further during his first Labour conference as prime minister, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer. While party leaders hope for a conference bounce as a result of wall-to-wall media coverage, Starmer suffered the reverse effect, as his ratings plunged to their lowest ever level, and well below those of Rishi Sunak. Last night’s resignation of the whip by Labour MP Rosie Duffield, who cited Starmer’s “cruel and unnecessary” policies on winter fuel and the two child benefit cap, will further add to the sense of unease in party ranks, less than three months after its sensational general election win. Even before the Labour gathering in Liverpool – originally billed as a chance to celebrate its return to power after 14 years – Starmer’s ratings had collapsed 45 points since July to -26 by last weekend (with 24% approving of the job he was doing, against 50% who disapproved). Conference week, however, saw a further drop of four points to -30, by far the lowest he has ever recorded. Ratings for the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, also continued to slide amid warnings of a tough budget on 30 October. Reeves is on -28, down from -25 last weekend. Almost twice as many people (34%) thought Starmer made a bad speech last Tuesday as thought it was a good one (19%); 46% said they did not have an opinion. Only 20% of voters think Labour has been good at providing hope and optimism following its landslide ­general election victory, against 56% who think it is has done badly in this respect. And despite promising to lead a “government of service” and rebuild faith in politics, only 17% of people think it is doing well in this regard, against 58% who think it is doing badly. The only consolation for Starmer and Labour is that Opinium found the Tory party, whose conference opens in Birmingham at the weekend, were seen as lacking in a clear sense of purpose, and deeply divided.