The Conservatives’ lead was cut by two points in February as Keir Starmer emerged as the clear front-runner to succeed Jeremy Corbyn.
Opinium’s latest polling gives Labour a 32 per cent share of the vote, up slightly on January but still a daunting 15 points behind the Tories, who are polling on 47 per cent.
Leadership race
Starmer continues to lead the pack in the Leadership race.
When it comes to holding the Tories to account Starmer is the candidate that most believe is up to the job, with just under a quarter saying he would be most likely to win a general election, ahead of his closest rivals.
Emily Thornberry was eliminated from the race on Friday after narrowly failing to secure the nominations she needed to make it into the final ballot of party members.
At the midnight Friday deadline, Starmer had received 374 nominations from local constituency parties, ahead of Rebecca Long-Bailey on 164 and Lisa Nandy on 72.
Adam Drummond, head of political polling at Opinium, said “all available evidence suggests that Keir Starmer has a commanding lead in the Labour leadership race, public perceptions of each candidate’s position on the left-right spectrum suggest the public see Starmer and Lisa Nandy as closer to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown while Rebecca Long-Bailey’s position as the continuity Corbyn candidate appears to be the main thing that has cut through
about her.”
Rejected manifesto policies
Long-Bailey told supporters this week that Labour cannot win the next election if it veers away from the left-wing path set by current leader Corbyn.
Labour suffered its worst election defeat since 1935 when it lost 59 seats in the December poll, a result that ushered in the first Conservative landslide since the 1980s.
But leadership hopeful Long-Bailey said the party must not row back from the “popular” policies found in its manifesto but instead learn to explain them better.
University tuition fees
Elsewhere, Starmer pledged to uphold Labour’s commitment to abolish tuition fees.
He set out his 10 leadership pledges which included scrapping Universal Credit and putting the “green new deal” on the environment at the heart of all policies.
In what was seen as pitches to the left-wing base of the current leader, Sir Keir re-affirmed his commitment in supporting the common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water.
He also supported an income tax increase for the top 5% of earners and pledge to end outsourcing in the NHS and justice system.
Related: New Chancellor may delay March 11 Budget – Shapps
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