Prince Andrew More Popular Than U.K. Prime Minister as Government in Crisis

Prime Minister Liz Truss has become so unpopular in Britain that her approval rating in a recent poll is lower than Prince Andrew's.

The Duke of York was accused of raping Virginia Giuffre when she was a 17-year-old Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking victim. Andrew denied the accusation in a civil lawsuit and settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

The scandal made Andrew by far the most unpopular royal, with 75 percent of Brits saying they disliked him and only 11 percent saying they liked him in polling by YouGov in the second quarter of 2022. The figures give him a net approval rating of -64.

Liz Truss' Fall From Grace

In the six weeks since she became Prime Minister, Truss has disintegrated in the polls after her finance chief Kwasi Kwarteng pledged unfunded tax cuts, including for the richest income bracket, during a cost of living crisis.

The value of the pound crashed, driving inflation up and thousands of mortgage products were pulled by banks as the economy appeared to be in crisis.

A YouGov poll published on Tuesday, October 18, showed ten percent of Brits had a favorable opinion of the embattled Conservative Party leader while 80 percent had a negative view.

The data, collected between October 14 and 16, represents a net approval of -70, six points lower than Prince Andrew's most recent figures.

Further research by the pollster showed that 55 percent of the Conservative Party's own membership wanted Truss to resign.

If that were not all bleak enough for Truss, the research predates her decision to scrap a raft of the measures, in a move received as an acknowledgment of failure.

The Daily Mail initially greeted the mini-budget optimistically with a September 24 front page headline: "At Last! A True Tory Budget."

On October 18, the newspaper's front page read, "In Office but not in Power" while a picture caption noted she appeared haunted. The Sun ran with: "The Ghost PM."

Prince Andrew's Fall From Grace

Prince Andrew was forced to retreat from public life after a car crash interview with BBC Newsnight in November 2019 in which he famously defended as "too honorable" a decision to stay with Epstein even after the financier's conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

The Duke of York was then sued by Giuffre in 2021, who said she was forced to have sex with him in London, New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands and feared for her life if she refused.

Andrew denied the allegations and appeared to be poised to fight the case in court in New York until the shock announcement in February 2020 that the two sides had reached a settlement.

A month earlier, Queen Elizabeth II had stripped him of his honorary military titles and patronages.

The prince appeared to attempt a comeback when he was photographed walking his mother to her seat at Prince Philip's memorial service in March 2022.

However, he did not appear during her Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June, having tested positive for COVID-19.

If there was any doubt about whether the royals considered his appearance reputationally damaging, that was put beyond doubt when he pulled out of a public appearance on Garter Day the same month, though he went to a private lunch.

Prince Andrew took part in events marking the queen's death, including her funeral, in September 2022, but any return to public life appears far-fetched without Elizabeth, his greatest defender, in his corner.

As for Truss, the U.K. newspaper The Daily Star is currently running a live cam to see whether her premiership will outlast a head of lettuce.