Anthony Albanese preferred as Labor leader in blow to Bill Shorten

Bill Shorten’s ambitions have taken another hit as his arch-rival pulls ahead as the preferred Labor leader.

Shadow Minister for Infrastructure Anthony Albanese and Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten.

Bill Shorten’s leadership credentials have taken another hit as he sets the record for the most unpopular opposition leader while his arch-rival Anthony Albanese pulls ahead as the preferred Labor leader.

An exclusive Newspoll conducted for The Australian has revealed that Mr Shorten has now recorded his 66th successive poll with a personal net negative satisfaction rating, outdoing Tony Abbott and every other opposition leader since records began in 1985.

While maintaining a clear majority of support among Labor voters, in the broader electoral stakes he has fallen behind Mr Albanese, who has emerged as the clear favourite to lead the Labor Party to the next election. Mr Shorten now sits level with his deputy Tanya Plibersek as an equal second.

Mr Shorten’s run of negative net satisfaction as a party leader is now exceeded only by Paul Keating, who did not achieve a single positive net satisfaction score in any Newspoll when he was prime minister.

Kevin Rudd did not record a single negative net satisfaction rating as opposition leader in 2007.

And Mark Latham did not record a single negative net satisfaction rating as opposition leader between 2003 and the election in 2004.

Mr Shorten also continues to fall behind Malcolm Turnbull as preferred prime minister with 17 points now separating the two leaders — a marked turnaround since late last year when only two points separated them.

Newspoll edit tax labor leadership

However, a challenge to Mr Shorten in the near term would seem unlikely with the Victorian right winger enjoying a commanding lead among the Labor base with 39 per cent support compared with Mr Albanese, who enjoys just 22 per cent.

He also presides over a winning two-party-preferred vote over the Coalition of 52-48 per cent. But the falling personal ratings for the Labor leader, not helped by the citizenship crisis breaking out again three weeks ago, are likely to be pondered by party officials in the campaign lead-up to the July 28 by-elections, which Mr Shorten would be expected to spearhead.

Mr Albanese is now in front by a clear margin among all voters, with 26 per cent of all voters preferring him to Mr Shorten and deputy leader Tanya Plibersek, who are both on 23 per cent.

But more people were undecided about all three Labor identities than they were decided about any one of them, with 28 per cent of voters claiming to be uncommitted.

The poll, while unlikely to trouble Mr Shorten considering his support within the Labor base, ends his short reign as Labor’s preferred leader more broadly after he pipped both his rivals in a poll last month on the same question.

Mr Shorten has taken the blame for the latest chapter in the citizenship debacle, both internally and now it appears electorally, having maintained since August last year that no Labor MP had fallen foul of the constitutional requirement that candidates for parliament are not dual citizens.

This was spectacularly exposed on May 9, a day after the federal budget, when the High Court ruled Labor senator Katy Gallagher ineligible to sit because she was a dual British citizen at the time of her nomination.

The decision sparked a flurry of resignations from Labor MPs in the lower house — Josh Wilson, Justine Keay and Susan Lamb — who all admitted they were in the same boat as Ms Gallagher.

The decision by West Australian Labor MP Tim Hammond to leave parliament for family reasons has given rise to five by-elections, which the Speaker, on advice from the Australian Electoral Commission, has set for the controversial date of July 28.