Just over a week ago The Sun ran an article on the back of a YouGov poll which, the article claimed, showed that “Rishi Sunak is more popular than Sir Keir Starmer”.

So it must have been quite a surprise to all at The Sun to see Mr Sunak’s party go on to lose almost 1000 council seats in the local elections later that week.

But it shouldn’t have been. Because the poll data, now published by YouGov, shows that the popularity of the leaders was never tested.

Instead, respondents were asked which of the two was a better leader – a contest from which Sunak came out on top, albeit marginally. The question did not make it clear whether this meant the better leader of the country, or their party, and did not probe at all into the matter of whether this referred to that individual’s leadership qualities in isolation, or which, as The Sun claimed, reflected on their popularity more broadly.

It should also be pointed out that both Sunak and Starmer lost out to an insurgent third candidate: Neither, which commanded support from over a third of respondents. A further four percent would apparently not even entertain the question, and refused to give an answer (and 12% said "Don't know").

But these misrepresentations are small fry compared to some of the other distortions.

The article’s subheading states that “Brits are opposed to explicit sex education in class”, but the results show that, in fact, the vast majority of respondents are in favour of education on safe sex and pregnancy.

In the subset of questions about what is taught in schools, the only issue for which a majority of respondents did not agree, was that students should be taught “different sexual positions”. This is not on the curriculum.

But arguably the worst distortions were over the questions on gender identity.

The poll asked respondents if they agreed that “a transgender woman is a woman”, and likewise for transgender men. 33% agreed with this, with 47% disagreeing.

Yet The Sun reported this as “only a third of Brits agree… that a woman can have a penis”.

It is widely known that there is a spectrum of treatments and personal choices for people seeking gender reassignment, some of which include surgical alterations.

As such, someone can be transgender regardless of whether they have a penis or not. This is not widely disputed, and it is bizarre (and incorrect) for The Sun to misrepresent the question in this way.

Public opinion about this issue is nuanced and diverse. Rightly or wrongly, there are members of the public who have concerns about people who have a transgender background accessing, for example, gendered sports, which apply regardless of whether those individuals have undergone treatment and surgery. There are others for whom the question of whether surgery has been carried out is relevant.

It is a complex issue. If The Sun wish to reduce it to a simplistic question, they must report the question and the results accurately.

For The Sun to misrepresent polling results in this way undermines public trust in not only the press, but also the work of polling companies. Their findings inform political and other decision-making processes.

YouGov should disassociate themselves from The Sun's report, and The Sun should correct itself.