Sir Keir Starmer hasn't exactly had the easiest start to his premiership - what with the recent riots, the country's financial woes and today's move to activate emergency measures in prisons. And now it appears that the PM's popularity with the public has taken a hit too. New Ipsos polling reveals the Prime Minister's net favourability rating has plummeted from his post-election score of +7 to 0. While Starmer is still the most-liked politician in the poll - and has a higher score than the likes of Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak two months into their premierships - it transpires that more than half of Brits believe that things in the UK are going in the wrong direction. Talk about a short honeymoon...

In a rather poor result for Sir Keir and his Starmtroopers, it transpires that barely a fifth of Britons believe the country is headed in the right direction, according to data collected from 1,148 adults between the 9-12 August. Starmer's top team don't fare too well in the eyes of the public either - deputy PM Angela Rayner, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have all had their 'unfavourability' ratings rise since Labour's July success. Not quite the 'change' they were hoping to see, eh?

And there is more trouble on the horizon for Starmer's army. The lefty lot is also facing scrutiny over some rather curious civil service hires. First there was Ian Corfield's appointment to the role of director of investment at the Treasury. The department has come under the spotlight after it emerged that the civil service watchdog was not informed of Corfield's status as a Labour donor, despite the fact he has given more than £20,000 to the party over the last nine years - including £5,000 to now-Chancellor Rachel Reeves. At the weekend a second appointment attracted attention, after Emily Middleton was made a director general in the Department for Science and Technology. Middleton is another party donor, with the former businesswoman's consultancy firm having given a whopping £67,000 to the party. Crikey.

Tory leadership contender James Cleverly has slammed 'Labour's very questionable civil service recruitment practices' while ex-Tory SpAd Henry Newman has taken to Twitter to publicly question the transparency of the move, tweeting: 'Can you imagine the outrage if a Conservative PM had appointed a donor to the civil service?' One thing's for sure: charges of cronyism will hardly help the public's view of Sir Keir's Labour lot. Rules for thee but not for me...