Labour takes three-point lead over Tories in new poll
Labour has taken a three-point lead over Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in a new poll, just days after Sir Keir Starmer’s first party conference as leader.
An Opinium/Observer poll released last night has Labour on 42 per cent and the Conservatives on 39 per cent, representing the first major poll to have the opposition lead the government since Johnson came to power last year.
Labour was more than 20 points behind the Conservatives in polling when Starmer became leader six months ago.
The Opinium poll found that 46 per cent of voters’ “opinion of the Labour party has become more positive since [Starmer] became leader”.
It comes just days after his first party conference as leader, which carried the tagline of “A New Leadership” in a clear rebuke to former leader Jeremy Corbyn.
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Starmer used his speech to distance himself from Corbyn and his far-left supporters, while also trying to appeal to lost working class voters by stressing the party’s need to be more patriotic.
He said the party “deserved” to lose last year’s General Election and that losing four elections in a row had been a “betrayal of what we believe in”.
The Conservatives’ poll ratings have suffered as the public has become more disillusioned with the Johnson government’s response to coronavirus.
The Opinium poll showed half of people surveyed disapproved of the government’s Covid response, while only 30 per cent approved.
Opinium head of political polling Adam Drummond said: “While this is the first time since Boris Johnson became prime minister that Labour have been ahead of the Conservatives on vote share, Keir Starmer has had better approval ratings (both raw and net) than the prime minister for some time and the two leaders have tended to draw on the question of who would be the better prime minister.
“While there is strong public support for the new Covid restrictions announced by the government earlier this week, they have not yet resulted in the sort of boost in the government’s approval rating that the initial lockdown measures brought in March.”